Last night, doing the whole depressed-about-national-affairs thing that makes Jenipher say I sound like Eeyore when I call her, I went from CD to CD in my collection, trying to find something that would fit my mood. (Some TV station showed New Orleans footage intermixed with Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA," which I despise.)
One of my bosses, in hearing me speak of the disaster yesterday, called me a weirdo liberal when I said that I cried over the situation and couldn't concentrate on work.
With the idea that I was all liberal in mind, I put on my copy of Bob Dylan's greatest hits, and I found the song to fit my mood.
I don't usually just post song lyrics, for it doesn't usually carry the impact that you want when you repost "how I feel" through song on a blog. But this one has, to be fair, fantastic lyrics written in metaphor that carry for me, now, a literal meaning. Plus, the song's hopeful. And Dylan wrote it when he was 22.
Long story short, Bob Dylan's a genius.
THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGIN
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
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