There’s an unseen thread that runs through most of these reflections and ponderings I’ve been dumping out of my head this past week, and that is family. Without the family…the food, the friends, the farm…they aren’t the same experience.
The drink? Willet Rye. It may have been another gym night, but man cannot live on water alone. (Wait…no…)
I don’t know if you are a rye person (I honestly don’t know what being a “rye person” even means), but if you like rye or just think you might want to TRY it, you absolutely can’t go wrong with this one. It felt like a good bottle to grab the night before the big day.
The Artist and The Song: Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster – Educated Guesses
“Did you try your luck until you found that it don’t give a fuck? It deals you in or out just as it pleases”
My intention was to have a different artist represented each night, but with the way things came up in the rotation, this one seemed to fit right here tonight.
I wrote about a few nights ago about how we all think our parents are so old, right from the get go, but when WE make it to that age, we realize it ain’t really all that old. The first part of this song captures that sentiment SO perfectly, and the rest of it is just as great and hits home with me every time I hear it.
I haven’t done this with the others, but I wanted to put the lyrics of this one below the song in case you want to read along. In a lot of ways, it touches on the things I’ve been pondering on this past week, so I wanted to share it. I hope you enjoy.
Educated Guesses
Have you seen your mother, baby
Standing in the shadows with a
Look of indecision on her face?
Have you ever wondered how she
Looked when she was younger and
Decisions weren’t things she had to make?
Did you see your father, baby
There beside your mother
Laughing with his arm around her waist?
Have you ever wondered how they
Were when they were younger, and
Thе only thing they had to lose was faith?
And is it any wonder now, was thеre ever any doubt
They’d be in it ’til the lights went out and the wheels fell off?
Did you learn your lesson, man
With educated guesses that you
Only wind up taking on the chin?
Did you hope to gather all
The things that you would rather have
Instead of only piss in the wind?
Did you try your luck until you
Found that it don’t give a fuck?
It deals you in or out just as it pleases
And how you it stuck out while all the
Smart ones ran to bigger towns
You didn’t heed the siren call to leave
And is it any wonder now, was it ever any doubt
You’d be in it ’til the lights went out and the wheels fell off?
And is it any wonder now, was it ever any doubt
You’d be in it ’til the lights go out and the wheels fall off?
As I sat thinking about this post tonight, I kept thinking about the many different ways I could go with it. Honestly, this is one of the harder ones I’ve had to write, because of what it is about. I want to give credit where credit is due, but I also don’t want to get TOO bogged down in the details.
I could have probably written a post every night this week about how my family has impacted me over these past 50 years, and I could write another post each evening for the next few weeks doing the same, but honestly, so many of the words on those pages you’ve read WERE influenced by the people in my life, particularly by my family.
My sense of humor…my appreciation for all types of music…my love of cooking…my love of writing…my ability to shoot a foul shot…my ability to shoot a squirrel…there are family members behind each one of those things.
If I had to quickly sum up my childhood home, the 3 things that would come to mind first are good food, good music, and unconditional love. My mom was a great cook and always put amazing food on the table, and my dad really knew how to work a grill. There was always good music playing…Waylon Jennings…Bobby Bare…the Bee Gee’s…Motown…and so many others. And if it wasn’t playing on the stereo, my dad was singing and playing the guitar. And through everything, we always felt loved, no matter what. Even if we were being little shits, I can’t remember a hurtful word being said, and I feel blessed to have grown up in that type of environment. There are definitely so many more good things I could say, but those 3 right there are an awfully big part of who I am.
The good influences didn’t stop inside the walls of our home, though. On both sides of my family, I was blessed with so many good and loving (and very funny) people. Any time family members visited or we visited family members, even though I was a bit of an introvert, I was also like a little sponge, soaking up SO many things…a line here…a facial expression or mannerism there…from every single one of them. There are still little turns of phrase I use today that I can trace right back to a particular family member.
It goes without saying that over the course of 50 years, so many of the wonderful people who helped shape me in some way have passed on, but I like to think that with every person I talk to…with every word I write…tucked inside so many of the things I do every day…there is a piece of them that lives on and comes through.
And I think they’d like that.