From Time On

When we talk about fixing things, we probably mean cars, computers, broken windows, or washing machines. When we say we are patching something up, we certainly mean a bicycle tire. When we speak of  repairing something, we could mean a relationship.

A long time ago, I figured out you can't fix people, assuming someone is actually broken in the first place. It's probably a misguided notion to try and do so, since the broken one may well be you. Same thing with relationships; once they stop working they cannot really be fixed. That, however, doesn't mean they can't be patched up to carry on.

I wake up all the time with a song playing in my head; usually one I've not heard in a long time. This past night it was "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn, a self-described Jewish kid from Cleveland:

"Then I'm walking in Memphis
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel"

Cohn says the song is about transformation, and it's true that the words and the tune fit into that Christian Gospel tradition. If you go to Verse 3:

"Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
And they asked me if I would
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
And she said
'Tell me are you a Christian child?'
And I said 'Ma'am I am tonight'"

***

Having spent time in Memphis, along Beale Street, I've always dreamed that some of my words might be put to song. Actually, some of them were a long time ago. I knew a country singer in Florida who read the poems I was writing at the time and offered to write melodies for them.

I went to see him perform in a club one night and he introduced me to the audience.That was as close as I came to having a career as a songwriter.

However I do know the kind of singer I would have written for, and that is a singer whose voice resonates with story-telling and rhythm, someone like Emmy Lou Harris.

The way these things go, I've learned, is that somebody who reads this essay knows Emmy Lou Harris and someone else knows Marc Cohn. We're all connected by just those few degrees of separation, which was one of the earliest memes of the Internet Age.

***

My daily news fix on Corona-V focuses on the myriad ways it attacks the body -- massive organ failure in younger people has emerged as a concern. Whether we want to be or not, we are in a relationship with Corona-V. She's got her arm around our waist and we are dancing like a couple who would rather be anywhere but here. She wants to go back to that fish market in Wuhan and I want to go back to Memphis.

Neither outcome is likely, even if we find a way to patch this thing up. Truth is we never should have gotten involved in the first place. So who is responsible for that? Barack Obama? I don't think so.

There's a song in there somewhere.

But should it turn out we can't sing our way out of this one, if our voice is to go silent, let's get at least one thing straight.

Few things are as pretty as a box of fresh produce, especially if it is from a farm in your area. You've mo doubt already figured this out. Compared to most packaging materials the box itself is attractive. But the mix of fruits and vegetables therein is a thing of beauty.

Nature's art.

When this pandemic subsides, I wonder how many urban and suburban consumers will continue to patronize their local farmers and how many will go back to the monopolistic grocery chains for their produce?

The way these things go, someone reading these words works high up in a monopolistic grocery store company and somebody else has their own family farm. They are probably not the same people who know Marc and Emmy Lou.

All I know is if we can't sing or paint our way out of this mess, maybe we can at least find our way to a common religion -- one based on living on the earth more lightly. I'm not sure what its name is, or how you become a congregant, but "Ma'am, I am (one) tonight."

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