The Source
I've always been a fan of folk-rock music. From the 90's til today, one of my favorite songs has been Indigo Girls "Closer To Fine". I like the music and the lyrics. I have always been one to favor good lyrics over the music, strong meaningful lyrics makes the poem timeless. I always like statements within the lyrics that have deep meaning for myself, and this Indigo Girls song was one.
In that song there is a line, "The less I seek my source for some definitive, the closer I am to fine". When I heard this line, even before I knew what the words meant, I liked the way the words sounded. But then when I thought about was the meaning of the words, they touched me even deeper. Epiphany! I have had the same thought, just not expressed so succinctly. What it means to me; The less I try to define what the meaning of life is, why I am here, where I we come from, and what is God; the better I feel, the better my emotions, the better I treat other people, the better I feel about myself. Instead of trying to figure out an answer to a question that cannot be answered, an answer does not exist, lets just live our lives and treat others the way you would like to be treated.
When I studied the rest of the lyrics to that song I found plenty of similar ideology to my own. There are too many to list here so I'll just paste the lyrics at the end of today's post. "I stopped by a bar at 3:00 AM....... "
I find a lot of songs with lyrics that match my own personal ideology, or philosophy of life. One recent one is Spingsteen's "Devils And Dust". They don't always deal with G-d or life, some deal with relationships, some with traveling, some with getting older. Mellencamp's "Minutes to Memories" has always been a favorite, a story about realizing previous generation's wisdom. "Now that I'm older I can see he was right". Powerful words, if one does more than just sing-along with the music and realize what the poems are saying.
I've always wanted be able to be poetic like some of my favorites songwriters, but I never had a talent for it. I like to write, but I've never had the artistic touch to my writing. I'm always saying " I wished I had wrote or said that" when I hear these lyrics.
I'm trying to tell you something about my life
maybe give me insight between black and white
and the best thing you've ever done for me
is to help me take my life less seriously
it's only life after all
yeah
well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable
and lightness has a call that's hard to hear
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it
I'm crawling on your shores
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
there's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in a crooked line
and the less I seek my source for some definitive
(the less I seek my source)
the closer I am to fine
the closer I am to fine
and I went to see the doctor of philosophy
with a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee
he never did marry or see a b-grade movie
he graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind
got my paper and I was free
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
there's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in a crooked line
the less I seek my source for some definitive
(the less I seek my source)
the closer I am to fine
the closer I am to fine
I stopped by the bar at 3 a.m.
to seek solace in a bottle or possibly a friend
and I woke up with a headache like my head against a board
twice as cloudy as I'd been the night before
and I went in seeking clarity.
I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
yeah we go to the doctor, we go to the mountains
we look to the children, we drink from the fountains
yeah we go to the bible, we go through the workout
we read up on revival and we stand up for the lookout
there's more than one answer to these questions
pointing me in a crooked line
the less I seek my source for some definitive
(the less I seek my source)
the closer I am to fine
the closer I am to fine
the closer I am to fine
6 comments:
Interesting song, I’ve never heard it before. Hold on, things are occurring to me here. :-)
Where they at in their lives when they made that song? Where are they now? That is, in satisfaction with their lives and how things are going for them now. The author of that song may be in a different place now than she was then. Maybe at the time she was going through an era of struggle trying to understand things and then decided to say to hell with it all and stop taking it all so seriously. I’m just shooting at ducks here, but I’m a pretty good shot.
I didn’t take my first fifty years very serious, just worked, played, raised a family the best I could, things like that. I sure as hell didn’t search for any spirituality, to busy just living. Then things started to change, women started to become more difficult to have decent relationships with, in large part because all the good ones are busy and taken and mostly what you have left is the difficult ones. This is true.
The more trouble men and women have with each other, the more time they spend searching for answers and their spirituality, and the meaning too it all. When you are in a good, or reasonably good relationship you don’t give it all that much thought, you just live life. Am I right so far? I’m sure more stuff will occur to me later.
Yes, it was a failed relationship, and an attempt at a new relationship with a religious woman, that started me thinking of religion and spirituality, and how different those two practices are. The first failed relationship was my fault, I thought that there had to be something more to life, I was wrong, I had everything one could want in life and was still not satisfied. Happiness is wanting what you have, and not having what you want.
Religion ruined the second because of her illogical approach that religious values were more important than moral values. In other words, her religious rituals were more important than treating people with dignity or human rights. Thats when I discovered that it was still possible to be spiritual without having to be scammed by some religion.
As I've said before. If you are part of the all, call it God. Then you are the all, that isn't a religion, it's just a spirituality. Women just don't get that because our ancestors brainwashed it out of them. And we have been paying for it ever since.
I just went back in your archives and looked at your first posts. Other than the fact that I may be more cheerful than you, really, in person I am, we seem to have like minds.
I'll try to find time to read more of your first posts, they are interesting.
I have that album. :) I used to play that song too. Devils and Dust makes me cry happy tears.
Oh for christ's sake, lets get a new post up.
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