Another day dawns.  A light rain is falling for which I am thankful.  I do not live in L.A.  There it is a dry time.  The city is certain to face water rationing, when Lake Mead falls  lower.  The man-made lake is now at 36% of full capacity.  Four million people in one place, and not enough water.  

Some saw this coming years ago, and warned about improvident development.  The land simply cannot be “engineered” to support such a population, given the resource hungry, first-world life style to which we Americans are accustomed.  The seasons, ocean currents, migrations of birds, food chain from the microscopic life forms all the way to apex predators, taken together are analogous to an organism:  Gaia.  Technical intervention, machines excising vast amounts of vegetation to build highways, shopping centers, and tract homes, — the scalpel of humankind…  Everything natural cannot be sacrificed on account of “the economy.”  

Now the bill for what we have done is due.  It is unpayable.

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Haven’t we all loved this song?  The lyric describes the faculty of the imagination, a vision of an idealized female, and yet not entirely a fantasy because she marries the music man, who tells this story.  The video is fairly recent, taken during an academy awards viewing party in 2019.  A magnificent rendition with Elton John on the piano, and stage actor Taron Egerton masterfully performing the song. 

Tiny Dancer

By Elton John

Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band
Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you’ll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand
And now she’s in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand

Jesus freaks out in the street
Handing tickets out for God
Turning back she just laughs
The boulevard is not that bad

Piano man he makes his stand
In the auditorium
Looking on she sings the songs
The words she knows the tune she hums

But oh how it feels so real
Lying here with no one near
Only you and you can hear me
When I say softly slowly

Hold me closer tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You had a busy day today

Hold me closer tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You had a busy day today

Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band
Pretty eyed, pirate smile, you’ll marry a music man
Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand
And now she’s in me, always with me, tiny dancer in my hand

But oh how it feels so real
Lying here with no one near
Only you and you can hear me
When I say softly slowly

Hold me closer tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You had a busy day today

Hold me closer tiny dancer
Count the headlights on the highway
Lay me down in sheets of linen
You had a busy day today

Lyrics by Elton John and Bernie Taupin