I Would Not Give You False Hope
Saturday and I am up early. The days are longer and I am thankful for extended day light plus a morning that offers me hot coffee and music. As I arrived here at Starbucks Paul Simon’s Mother and Child Reunion played on my car radio. I’ve witnessed Paul Simon in concert and I felt his presence in those lyrics. A artist worthy of his art tells the truth. “Spit out the truth” is the first dictum of Buddhism. Mother and Child Reunion is one of the saddest songs, yet the tune is one of the happiest. I felt my spirit lift, borne along with the optimistic and mournful melody. Is not life bitter-sweet? That is the truth of the matter. What more can be said? What is the point of putting a finer detail on the sweep our our years, be they long or short? It’s a matter of imagined outcomes verses the probabilities inscribed in the hand that one has been dealt. It’s possible to improve one’s manner of play, but the cards that one holds, time and place of birth, family heritage, physical and psychological environment of upbringing, etc. cannot be swapped out for a better hand. One must play.
For me this song is about our quest for a homecoming, to arrive spiritually where we belong, the discovery of our true self, the “mother and child reunion.” The ancient quest depicted so magnificently by Homers tale of Odysseus return from Troy to Ithaca, to home and family, is one that we all share. Odysseus continues to sail on, and we sail with him. Arrival is by no means guaranteed, but what can we do but sail on?
Mother And Child Reunion
No I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
But the mother and child reunion
Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mineI can’t for the life of me
Remember a sadder day
I know they say let it be
But it just don’t work out that way
And the course of a lifetime runs
Over and over againNo I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
But the mother and child reunion
Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mineI just can’t believe It’s so
Though it seems strange to say
I never been laid so low
In such a mysterious way
And the course of a lifetime runs
Over and over againBut I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
When the mother and child reunion
Is only a motion awayOh the mother and child reunion
Is only a motion away
Oh the mother and child reunion
Is only a moment away
