Tangled Up in Blue Part. 1

You think it would have happened several years ago, there were so many chances.It was obviously going to happen, but it never did. And when it did, we weren't ready, not by a long shot. I mean, when does lightning strike two years after a storm has passed? But lightning has this knack of striking hot during a midsummer night's dream, or was it winter? I do wish I'd remember. The point of the matter is that you've been waiting for something years and years and it was summer all along and then lightning strikes you when you least expect it, but summer remains, a few weeks pass..and then it hits you, by jove! that was a goddamn thunderbolt!
Of course it's no longer summer anymore, summer's gone..morphed into a desolate autumn...you're wondering when winter will come, all the while clinging to the lightning. The lightning keeps you going and by the time you know it, it's pouring..not the "raindrops keep falling on my head" kind, but more like a torrential downpour that you're absolutely flooded in, clinging on to a few branches for dear life!
And I was standin' on the side of the road
Rain fallin' on my shoes
Heading out for the East Coast
Lord knows I've paid some dues gettin' through,
Tangled up in blue.
That thunderbolt in the middle of summer has electrocuted you for better or worse and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Do they even treat these things nowadays? How silly I'd feel walking in to see a doc to say " I was hit! you see". "Well good for you" he'd say.
But how do you know what's good for you? The opposite of one profound truth is another profound truth they keep telling me. Is lightning good for you? Of course! Be spontaneous! blink! Live in the moment! What more is there to life? You're electrocuted!
Lightning? Of course not! What are you? Deluded? Grow up kid! This is the real world..electrocution means death! A thousand hopes and aspirations...all for what? So that you can die a slow death? We want you to burn out! And all the while you think the lightning is going to burn you out, it's nothing more than a simmer. You want flames, and all you get is embers. But they never quite go away. They're supposed to kill you, but somehow, it's masochistic, you seem to be enjoying this torturous experience. You think you might want to stop the fire, but there's no water to be found! How do you put out the flame? It's much like the Hotel California, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Meanwhile I endeavor to communicate with the The Rain God, the cause of the lightning that's electrocuting me and we make a pact.
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin' away
I heard her say over my shoulder,
"We'll meet again someday on the avenue,"
Tangled up in blue.

Tangled Up in Blue Part. 2

It's been awhile, you're still burning. There were intermittent flames, but it was never quite about to be a conflagration. You've had firefighters for friends; all of them incompetent, bumbling fools. But that's what you think. How can one blame them? I mean who in the world can see eyeball to eyeball with the doing of a Rain God? The Rain God has its rivals too you know, but once you're struck, you will burn. In heaven or in hell, but you will burn!
So I'm burning, looking to put out the fire sometimes, reigniting it at other times. Such is my disposition, such is my plight. What am I to do? My death has been foretold by all and sundry. They mock you, they pity you, they offer to pay for your funeral even. Why should you fade to death? Why don't you burn out in one brilliant blaze of glory they say? Why do you want to go on burning in so inconsequential a manner? The fire was not my doing I say, "I was struck you see". I did not choose to burn, and so I cannot choose to stop burning.
But all the while I was alone
The past was close behind,
I seen a lot of women
But she never escaped my mind, and I just grew
Tangled up in blue.
There are few people who understand burning in its simple, primordial form. Fire is as basic as it gets on this earth. Controlling fire might be beyond you, but you very well can decide whether it is hell or heaven you're burning in. I chose heaven, and it worked wonders. Not that the simmer changed into a forest fire overnight, far from that. But the Rain God was benevolent, bemused at this heaven you'd created for yourself amidst the carnage, but accepting of the limit of its powers.
How long will this idyllic situation last though? The Gods must be crazy! " Somewhere in my youth or childhood I must have done something good", a la Maria von Trapp, I thought! Of course this was but an illusion. Soon I was brought back to earth with a bang. Back from my fleeting blaze to the slow and steady embers that I was all too familiar with. The Rain God refused to even speak! You will die a slow death like everyone before you, was its proclamation.
It hasn't been summer for a long time now. Winter never came either. It was always autumn. For as long as you can remember it's been autumn. You expect this perennial autumn to continue until you're in a position to take on the Rain God on its own terms." We mortals never did fear taking on the Gods. We've won many a times. We will win again some day." And all of a sudden the autumn became spring. There were birds singing in the trees, people were out in the gardens. The human sound lent it's magical touch to the ears of everyone passing by. Flowers bloomed like never before. Paradise was regained, or maybe it was never lost in the first place. The Rain God had met its match, it wanted to negotiate.
But me, I'm still on the road
Headin' for another joint
We always did feel the same,
We just saw it from a different point of view,
Tangled up in blue.

Something Fresh

Using the title of Wodehouse's first Blandings Story is the perfect way to start anew I guess. For mine is the Earth and everything that's in it, if I can start again at my beginnings, as Kipling says, and which is more, I'll be a man, your son! For long has the status quo remained, and who knows what tomorrow is to bring? We never quite did take it at the flood..but change is dynamic;an opportunity missed, when will we see the likes of it again? Stuck at the door, when will I reach the other side? Is there an other side at all? I'm sure I'll be lost..is this keeping me from going forward? The announcement is made, but the truth will out , sooner or later. Ambition should be made of sterner stuff they say, a false promise is like another nail in the coffin, the road to hell being paved with good intentions. But I soldier on nevertheless, and if a proposition for a new beginning is to gain any credence, then who are they to decide what is new and what is old? After all it's all just bricks in the wall...