Saturday, late February, and out-of-doors is bitter cold.  This is the cold season, a time suited for reflection.  Waking early, making my way to Starbucks, two thoughts were looping in my mind.  I checked my iphone news feed soon after rising.  I felt relief that Ukraine is not yet fighting, dying to fend off the Russian army.  At the same time I am haunted by the lyric of  “Patterns” a tune that I heard performed last night at the Coronado Theater in Rockford.  The song was a component of the Simon & Garfunkel story.  Perhaps you are of my generation and remember the harmonious voices of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel mirroring the place and time of late 20th century America.

Regarding the incipient war in Ukraine, and a philosophy so magnificently, so sadly offered in “Patterns,” this is the “take-away.”  Everyone, from the President of Russia, to this retired, aspiring writer living in Batavia, Illinois, — essentially fulfills his/her pattern of life…  There are no exceptions.

Is it not humbling, cautionary, salutary to see one’s self in this light?

“For in darkness I must dwell.”

Patterns

By Simon and Garfunkel

The night sets softly
With the hush of falling leaves,
Casting shivering shadows
On the houses through the trees,
And the light from a street lamp
Paints a pattern on my wall,
Like the pieces of a puzzle
Or a child’s uneven scrawl.

Up a narrow flight of stairs
In a narrow little room,
As I lie upon my bed
In the early evening gloom.
Impaled on my wall
My eyes can dimly see
The pattern of my life
And the puzzle that is me.

From the moment of my birth
To the instant of my death,
There are patterns I must follow
Just as I must breathe each breath.
Like a rat in a maze
The path before me lies,
And the pattern never alters
Until the rat dies.

And the pattern still remains
On the wall where darkness fell,
And it’s fitting that it should,
For in darkness I must dwell.
Like the color of my skin,
Or the day that I grow old,
My life is made of patterns
That can scarcely be controlled.

Lyrics by Paul Simon

“Patterns” is a song written by Paul Simon and included on his 1965 album The Paul Simon Songbook, and later recorded by Simon and Garfunkel on their third album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.