It is the eighth day of gray overcast here in the Midwest.  I anticipate my appointment with the medical technician for a blood draw in about an hour.  No breakfast yet, as fasting is required.  Will the caffeine in this tall black coffee help?  I can’t tell.

Where do you turn for a recharge when besieged by the cold, short days of winter?  When you need a lift do you meditate, allow the static of the mind to subside?  What works depends upon ones temperament.  I turn to music, to rock and roll in particular.  This song a hit by Air Supply in 1983 “knocks me out.”  The tune is an anthem of resistance, an assertion of life, of rebirth in the midst of a relationship that is conflicted.  And who has not experienced conflict, disagreement, dissonance in a valued relationship?  Intervals of mismatched expectations, and partially expressed needs are normal.

Much of our experience of the self, and of our outlook on the world come from “below the surface” from a superego that we do not understand.  The internalized black-robed judge impresses verdicts that are felt as imperious emotional weights.  “Thou shalt enjoy” is the directive which confounds us at this juncture in our culture.  Never mind that life, no matter how fortunate has seasons which are not enjoyable.  So observed Jacques Lacan the French psychoanalyst and philosopher who passed in 1981.

There is a lot in this lyric to contemplate.  It is true to my experience.  There are times that one just simply “hangs on.” What of the times when there’s little common ground to work with?  An enduring relationship demands courage, the irrationality of faith, if it is to continue intact over the years.

I really like the lyricists observations of how important a relationship is to ground the self, to provide a place to stand, in the wider context of the world.  I highlighted those lines.

Making Love Out Of Nothing At All

by Air Supply

I know just how to whisper
And I know just how to cry
I know just where to find the answers
And I know just how to lie
I know just how to fake it
And I know just how to scheme
I know just when to face the truth
And then I know just when to dream
And I know just where to touch you
And I know just what to prove
I know when to pull you closer
And I know when to let you loose
And I know the night is fading
And I know the time’s gonna fly
And I’m never gonna tell you everything I’ve gotta tell you
But I know I’ve gotta give it a try
And I know the roads to riches
And I know the ways to fame
I know all the rules and then I know how to break ’em
And I always know the name of the game
But I don’t know how to leave you
And I’ll never let you fall
And I don’t know how you do it

Making love out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all
Making love out of nothing at all

Everytime I see you all the rays of the sun are
Streaming through the waves in your hair
And every star in the sky is taking aim at
Your eyes like a spotlight
The beating of my heart is a drum, and it’s lost
And it’s looking for a rhythm like you
You can take the darkness at the pit of the night
And turn into a beacon burning endlessly bright
I’ve gotta follow it ’cause everything I know
Well, it’s nothing ’til I give it to you
I can make the runner stumble
I can make the final block
I can make every tackle at the sound of the whistle
I can make all the stadiums rock
I can make tonight forever
Or I can make it disappear by the dawn
I can make you every promise that has ever been made
And I can make all your demons be gone
But I’m never gonna make it without you
Do you really want to see me crawl
And I’m never gonna make it like you do

Making love out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all
Out of nothing at all, out of nothing at all

lyrics by Jim Steinman