Ripple

Listen while you read:  https://youtu.be/lVdTQ3OPtGY

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full, may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of men

There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone

Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow

You who choose to lead must follow
And if you fall, you fall alone
If you should stand, then who's to guide you?
If I knew the way, I would take you home

~  Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead)

This one is for Nora.

American Beauty, released in 1970, is one amazing album.  And "Ripple" is one amazing song, another gem from the pen of Robert Hunter, lyricist for the Dead.  I am always puzzled by people who dismiss the Grateful Dead, as if they were somehow anarchistic or atonal or otherwise unpleasant.  I suspect that those people have never even listened to the Dead.  Their loss.

"Ripple" is a very spiritual song, an East meets West kind of poem.  Many have found connections to the 23rd Psalm in the lyrics.  Not being much of a Bible authority, I can't really comment on that, but the idea of a cup being full and a fountain not made by the hands of men seems somewhat Biblical to me.  The refrain Ripple in still water / When there is no pebble tossed / Nor wind to blow is more or less a haiku, that Japanese art form that is most often reflective of nature and the lessons it can teach us.  Certainly, the refrain contains the requisite 17 syllables, but the traditional 5 - 7 - 5 disbursement of those syllables is absent.  Not to worry, Purists.  It's okay.  (I know, having to have many conversations with myself to accept that aberration.)  The more important aspect of a haiku is that it focuses on a brief moment in time and provides a sudden enlightenment or illumination.  Hunter's refrain surely does that.

But Hunter's favorite line is not that refrain.  His favorite line, the one he claims is the best that has ever come out of his head, is this one:  Let it be known there is a fountain / That was not made by the hands of men.  I suppose many of us could argue with him on the best line he's ever written.  (My favorite?  This is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon long ago from "Box of Rain.")

On this not-so-simple highway, between the dawn (birth) and the dark of night (death), at age 67, I guess it's about 6:30 in the evening for me.  The night spreads out before me, a ripple ever expanding with possibility.  I intend to stay up late, dance as long as I can, and then, sometime before midnight, ease into a beautiful sleep.

A life is a ripple.  All life is still water.  Maybe.  I don't know, don't really care.  Let there be songs to fill the air.

Yes.  Do you agree, Nora?  XO