Sex, the attraction between male and female, courtship, seduction are all words describing a perennial driving force that marks history, art, politics and every other endeavor.  Helen’s face launched a thousand ships to the ruin of Troy and Greece.  Helen was surely one of many beautiful women.  Yet she alone was the pivot point of betrayal, a toppling domino plunging gods and men into the cataclysm of warfare described by Homer.

I love the song, Southern Cross, by Crosby Stills and Nash.  I’ve heard Jimmy Buffett cover it live several times.  For me the song is strangely sacramental.  The tune causes me to relive, to indwell within my imagination the character who is speaking.  It captures the primal forces between man and woman.

There can be a powerful synchronicity in a male female relationship that can be nurtured, or can be lost at a cost of great sorrow.  After all, those breakup songs come from somewhere.   A man pursuing his vocation as a seaman attempts to telephone a lost love from a bar somewhere in the Caribbean.  His longing for her is palpable, as is his honesty, his self awareness.  The speaker asserts that his love for her is linked cosmically to Heaven and to the Southern Cross constellation.

Go ahead and view/listen to the youtube of Jimmy Buffet performing the tune.  The video may well have been taken by a participant standing down front at Alpine Valley Wisconsin.  I could have been there when this was recorded.

Got out of town on a boat goin’ to Southern islands
Sailing a reach before a followin’ sea
She was makin’ for the trades on the outside
And the downhill run to Papeete

Off the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas
We got eighty feet of the waterline nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you
But on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away

Think about
Think about how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me larger voices callin’
What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten

(Around the world) I have been around the world
(Lookin’) Lookin’ for that woman girl
(Who knows she knows) Who knows love can endure
And you know it will

When you see the Southern Cross for the first time
You understand now why you came this way
‘Cause the truth you might be runnin’ from is so small
But it’s as big as the promise, the promise of a comin’ day

So I’m sailing for tomorrow my dreams are a dyin’
And my love is an anchor tied to you tied with a silver chain
I have my ship and all her flags are a’ flyin’
She is all that I have left and music is her name

Think about
Think about how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me larger voices callin’
What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten

(I’ve been around the world) I have been around the world
(Lookin’) Lookin’ for that woman girl
Who knows love can endure
And you know it will, and you know it will yes

So we cheated and we lied and we tested
And we never failed to fail it was the easiest thing to do
You will survive being bested
Somebody fine will come along make me forget about loving you
At the southern cross