Although it’s been nearly a week since the first of the year, this is the first Mount Everest song of 2014, and it is frequently my desire to mark such an occasion with a song that reflects on the meaning of what has always been my favorite holiday. In the past I’ve often used this opportunity to talk about renewal, and second chances, and all of the wonderful things that the New Year evokes. This time I’ve gotten a bit more esoteric. There are a few things going on in this song. There is reflection on the past, and our tendency to get stuck there, and examination of the future, and our habit of willing it to come too fast. It is also a song about stories, positing that perhaps it is best to fall asleep before the end of them. Just like we hurry to find our way into our future, we often listen to stories only to hear the end. That isn’t right. Also, in parts of this song I am a tree, and so are you, because trees are steady and evocative of the past. These particular trees finds out about the present by standing in the bitter cold. You’re never so present as when you’re cold, because you become aware of every inch of your body. I’m not sure what all of this amounts to, and my metaphor may seem like a reach, but I think it all comes together quite nicely.
Promise for next week: bonafide artwork that I will spend actual time making!
lyrics
Lo and behold
The first of the year
Is a common thing
Auld Lang Syne
Sobering up, disappear
And I’m counting up my rings
Cautiously
Good God
I sold my thoughts long ago
On this very road
One time
I shook my branches just so
And I scattered all my snow
At your feet
Then there’s this story
And when I heard it
Slipped my fears behind me
Fading with the years
And though I’m sorry
That I slept right through the end
Could be the way that it’s intended to be
Stand in the cold
And Cling to the way
That it makes you feel
Cracked and exposed
You creak as you sway
And the past ain’t nothing real
Suddenly
And I heard this story
And when I heard it
Slipped my fears behind me
Fading with the years
And though I’m sorry
That I slept right through the end
Could be the way that it’s intended to be