October 6, 2007
by Mike Palecek

It is raining this morning in heaven.

The TV is turned off in heaven.

The daughter is upstairs sleeping yet. The wife is in the kitchen, strummin' on an old banjo, or maybe making more coffee. The son is probably still sleeping, at college.

I am drinking coffee, in heaven, looking out my back door, actually a side window.

There's a giant doing cartwheels, a statue wearin' high heels.
Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn.
A dinosaur Victrola list'ning to Buck Owens.

Ever wonder how high the writer of that song had to be?
Or maybe he had children. They will also do things to your mind, revealing things you would never have thought of your own self.

The world is slowly being revealed to me.

It better hurry the eff up. I was 52 this past week. I don't really mind being this old. I wish I was older. Maybe I would be smarter. Maybe taller. Some day I want to be old enough to understand Strawberry Fields and We All Live in a Yellow Submarine.

Anyway, driving home from work last night about 11:30, I heard the song, Band of Gold.
Remember that from the 1970s?

Well, I heard the line, "we kissed after taking vows." And it was finally, somehow clear to me.
All these years I thought it was "at the second vow." And I never understood.
Wow.
And now I know.

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It wasn't that long ago that I learned it was "twist and shout" rather than "twist and chow."

Before long I will know all ... all the lyrics of the songs on the radio.

Wow.

Hey.

Today is the last day of the Twins season. And we are moving toward a war with Iran. And nobody really cares. And the world is melting. And nobody cares. Wow. And there are still plenty of people who think Bush & Co. were not the perpetrators of 911. And on and on. Wow.

But there are forces at work, bringing consciousness to us in the times that the TV is turned off, when we are driving home in the dark, staring out the windshield, bobbing our head, banging on the steering wheel, singing along to a song we have heard nine hundred times, unaware of slobber running down our chin.

And voila. It is revealed.

Is that the way it happens? Just slowly, gradually, beyond our control?

I dunno, but maybe it better hurry the eff up.

Tambourines and elephants are playing in the band.
Wont you take a ride on the flyin' spoon?
Doo, doo doo.
Bother me tomorrow, today, Ill buy no sorrows.

Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door.


seeya

- Mike

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Mike Palecek [send him email] is an activist for peace and social justice. He served time in federal prison for civil disobedience and has run for US Congress. He has authored a number of books [click here to view] on behalf of the cause.