Negotiating the Recession with Poetry: "We Can't Be Forever Blessed"
Sometimes, all that stands between us and giving up (R.I.P. David Carradine) is the knowledge that we are not in this alone and "cannot be forever blessed." Paul Simon's ** American Tune from 1975, another time when the American Economy was flagging.
There's something about this song that always brings tears to my eyes at the same time as it makes me feel connected to something greater than myself.
Words & music by Paul Simon
Many's the time I've been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I've often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
Oh, but I'm all right, I'm all right
I'm just weary to my bones
Still, you don't expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
or driven to its knees
but it's all right, it's all right
for we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
road we're traveling on
I wonder what's gone wrong
I can't help it, I wonder what's gone wrong
And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was crying
We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age's most uncertain hours
and sing an American tune
Oh, and it's alright, it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest
_________________
** Paul Simon's been the sound track of my life. In 1965, when I graduated from Middle School (then called "Junior High") my graduation speech was built around Simon's "I Am a Rock" (which Simon describes here as his "most neurotic song.") Naturally. I was 13 years old!
