Flashes of Panic

Last night when I was ripping my new CDs, I went by the Nields site and found a very interesting link: Nerissa on All Things Considered, talking about “When I’m Here” with the song in the background. (I don’t expect anyone’s surprised that I’m favorably impressed with this disc.) She calls it “Zen Buddhist blues.” It’s curiously powerful, highlighting among other things something we’ve known since the Everly Brothers (or before): siblings harmonize better than anyone else.

I keep my lamp burning steady when I’m here
I keep my lamp burning steady when I’m here
I keep my lamp burning steady, when it’s time I will be ready
I keep my lamp burning steady when I’m here.

Putting that text down has barely an echo of the power of the words with the music. I sometimes think it’s an odd thing for as bloody-minded computer person as I am to be as into my music as I am, but I’m beginning to see a link here; it’s the magic. It’s putting things together and seeing them work together, whether that’s a few hundred (thousand?) lines of code to make a system, all the ingredients to make cookies (or not,) the words, the notes, the voices to make the music. When it all curls together to make something bigger than it started. It’s a temporary reversal of entropy. (The mnemonic I learned for Newton’s Laws: you can’t win, you can’t break even, and you can’t get out of the game.)

After today’s ration of track meets we’re headed for the Bear’s Den for the remainder of the weekend. I haven’t been there in nearly two years, but my cousin has hinted this will be the last summer of the cottage; it will ultimately disappear in favor of a more solid year-round retirement site for his parents. I’m not too disappointed; it stopped being a summer Eden for me years ago, anyway, perhaps when I grew big enough to wade to the “diving rock” without needing to swim. Still, the lake is there, albeit with more powerboats, and the mountains are as close to the ocean’s—is the word “numinousness?”—as I can easily reach from out here. Anyway… I’ll be here, or try to.

Now playing: When I’m Here from This Town Is Wrong by Nerissa & Katryna Nields