Part One: I Never Found Anyone Who Fulfilled My Needs
Although it is clear to the greatest number of people that this is a song of Infinite Beauty and First-Class Showmanship, I have found myself over these many years been distressed by the emotions that are stashed in its heart of hearts. I am talking about of course the frightening words “I decided long ago NEVER to walk in ANYONES SHADOW” and “I live as I believe” and this is the number one reason this Great Country is crumbling to its knees. This selfishness and anger toward our elders is leading us away from the path of righteousness.
I have lived in this Great Country for over fifty-four years in four States and in each one I have only found a falling away of values, and a rapid inflation of iniquity. My neighbour, Henry Lewis, a man of great physical beauty to be sure has even taken licentious ideas about me. He looks at me when I ask him not to bang the garbage cans together, and I am bothered by his eyes’ verboseness. After that, it is guaranteed I will not settle my thoughts down enough to enjoy the Biggest Loser. It does arouse me to be sure but these are times for Manhood and Strength because our President needs our support against the liars.
I have also lost the ability to write letters, which to me are further signs of the End of Things. I once wrote long letters to my Aunt that were filled with the precisely elegant exact turns of phrase to delight her soul. But now my pen is stopped up like a toilet, and I find myself roaming the fields behind my house beheading the dandelions with my foot. Even the birds are dying in the river. It helps me to try to recreate the exact conditions of my Parents cupboards. They were filled row upon row with soup cans with red labels zipped tight. There were six cans on the bottom row and never more than three cans in the row above but this altered with our savings or my Mother’s Everchanging Moods.
Henry Lewis showed me his Penis as well. Or what I thought was his penis between the slats of the picket fence. He pulled it out of his shorts. This is the iniquity of which the world is growing coarser, and moving away from the eternal joy of my childhood ages. This “shadow” that Ms Houston believes you cannot walk in is the “shadow” I encounter every day in my brain’s eye. I think this “shadow” is the struggle we all have with our souls in order to follow the path my mother in her wisdom flicked into me with her Spatula. It is the one my Aunt tries daily to pull me from with her many and bothersome phone calls about my “recurring thoughts.”
You should not worry about me, I have scared Henry Lewis away from his iniquity and roared at him “You do not have love in your heart of hearts! Please do not step onto my half of our shared walkway!” Which distressed him a great deal as we enjoyed drinking our long way out of sorrows together in his very Well-Equipped basement bar. (Henry Lewis is a Bachelor and often wears shorts.) But I think he knows that he has the upper hand for his look still has power over my very soul, right to the tingling edges of my toes. He is a strong man, almost as Strong as our First Black President.
I of course watched the inauguration as a Proud American of our First Black President with Henry Lewis and I secretly cried in his washroom as it has a fan to cover the sounds of your tears. It was a thing of Beauty much like this song and the visuals, which also make one cry. It gives you HOPE that endless INJUSTICES will be righted and the people WHO HAVE SUFFERED will find peace and forgiveness.
So though I cannot support Ms Houston’s desire for freedom and ruination of all that is good and honourable about this Great Country, I am always delighted by this song whenever I can catch it on the radio, perhaps in the car or even at the barber shop. Which is why it is music and not I suppose God, who does not make you feel 2 different things at the same time. It is a good reminder of times gone by when everything was beautiful and there was not a cancer on this country’s breathing face. My Mother of course did not like this type of music but she had little patience for weakness.
And like all timeless classics this song can make your foot involuntarily bounce and want to join the happiness of yourself to others. This can include but is not limited to iniquitous next door neighbours who perhaps have waited long enough and deserve our forgiveness and maybe even after these frosty weeks a Friendly Embrace.
