Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

This song is one of the most beautiful I know, particularly the following lyric fragment: "Turn around and say good morning to the night. For unless they sky -- but they can't and that is why -- they know not if it's dark outside or light." In general, I'm not a big Elton John fan; I don't dislike him, it's just that most of his songs don't resonate with me. But his songs that I do like, I like a lot. Anyway, this lyric frequently rings through my head although I often forget the name of the song it comes from. I tend to think of it in a more metaphorical way than perhaps Sir Elton (or really his partner, Bernie Taupin, who wrote the song) does. Apparently, he wrote this on the occasion of hearing a gunshot outside his window on his first trip to New York City (or so says the blurb on Youtube; I like to listen to the songs whose titles I'm using while I write.) If you've been to New York City -- or any big city, for that matter -- you know it is sometimes hard to see the sky.

Apart from simply being aurally pleasing, this song makes me ponder the thought patterns (or lack thereof) of people who refuse to see what's right in front of them. I know we're all guilty of that to some extent; we all have our areas of life which are just easier if we ignore the realities and live in a world of fantasy or ignorance. I try hard not to do this, but I'm sure I do about some things (which I won't discuss here). The song also makes me sad for people who do see the reality of their existence and choose to or are helpless to do anything to change it. Man, I'm bringing myself down here, and fast! Truly, I'm in a great mood today. I suppose this is a good example of the powerful effects of music. A student said to me, after taking my Literature as Social Protest class a few years ago, "I'll never be able to just listen to music again." (We had analyzed some song lyrics as poetry.) He was complaining, but I took it as a compliment. Paying attention is good. Thinking is also good. You'll never hear me apologize for helping someone do either or both.