Trav's Thoughts

Take This Tune is a new meme hosted by my pal Jamie at Duward Discussion. Jamie puts up a video prompt complete with lyrics to the song, and the task is to write something inspired by the title of the song or something in the lyrics.

I'm including the video this time because this is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite artists. This is Vincent by Don McLean.



I can feel myself becoming uneasy as September approaches. It's an unease that builds slowly. It makes me jumpy and I don't really sleep all that well. I haven't quite been able to minimize it, even after 8 years.

The events of 11 September 2001 haunt me still.

But the unease runs it's course. In the days following 11 September each year, it fades and I find that I can breathe again and let the ache recede. The day never really goes away. But the images from it aren't constantly in my thoughts after the day goes by.

The lyrics to the song Vincent are so evocative. Even if you knew nothing of Vincent van Gogh, you can be moved by these lyrics in some way. And I think that is the power of art and music. It can bring whatever you might need to a moment. It can stir passion, or settle unease, or do both at once.

At this time of year, I need to know that beauty can still be found despite unimaginable pain and loss. I've never looked at a van Gogh and not been disturbed by the warped yet magnificent beauty in it.



Disturbed...put out of order, disarranged, unsettled, agitated, distressed.

Sometimes I need to be disrupted a little. And I guess that's what this time of year does for me. It disrupts me, reminding me that although I feel safe and comforted in my life right now, I need to keep working to maintain it. It's not time yet for me to relax.

I still owe a lot to my family, my community, and my country. And that helps me find perspective. The perspective gives me strength. And the strength keeps me from being frozen in place like I was on that Tuesday 8 years ago.

Thank you for this prompt, Jamie. It's perfect timing.

Vincent (Starry Starry Night) by Don McLean

Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will...



If you're new to the Peace Globe movement, please go here to view the Peace Globe Gallery and here to learn how to make your own Globe. Then join us on 5 November 2009 by flying your Globe under the post title Dona Nobis Pacem.

I believe that words have power, so this matters.

The Silence of Peace, Papa's Marbles
The Doll Box