In a Drawer

Listen while you read:  Try this one . . .  or this one . . . or both!

Sitting on a bearskin rug
Listening to Grandpa talk
The whistle of an odd bird call
A photo of the long lost dog

Do you love me? Which one is it?
We should be living in a warehouse district
I take the day and the lesson it taught me
Passing off blame to anybody is easy
But darling, you know it shouldn't be like that
Can I go with you to the laundromat?

I found it in the drawer
In the drawer, I found it in a drawer
Took a little time, but now I found it in a drawer
Can't go on. No, I'll go on
Left it a long time ago
In a drawer, hidden in a drawer
I found it at the bottom, I found it in a drawer
Can't go on. No, I'll go on
I found it in a drawer

The creaking wood under my walk
Familiar like an old time song
A memory when you were young
Remembering a time long gone

Do you love me, baby? Do you love me?

~  Ben Bridwell and Jason Lytle (for Band of Horses)

There are two videos linked above. Watch them both and you won't be disappointed. "In a Drawer" is the second single released from 2016's Why Are You OK, Band of Horses' fifth studio album. That's Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis singing back-up vocals on the chorus. I love this song and I cannot sit still when it comes on. See if you can.

In an interview on the album's release, Bridwell was asked, of course, what it was that he found in the drawer. He claims it was finding his daughter's pacifier that set off the idea for the song. But of course, it could have been anything. What do we "find" in drawers? Things that we've forgotten about, things whose use has passed us by, things that take us back. So the song is one that inspires nostalgia.

I have been feeling nostalgic since my return from the Northwest. I am missing someone. I am missing everyone. It is hard to adjust to being alone after having a 24/7 companion for two weeks on the road.

There are 148 drawers in this house that I've lived in for 31 years. (Yes, I just counted them.) Imagine the number of things I could "find" in them! And that's not counting cabinets and shelves and other places where one can stash things. So many "things" that have the potential to send me off on a sentimental journey. While I have been trying to rev up the never-ending task of downsizing and purging my "stuff," it is an overwhelming endeavor, both physically and emotionally. It may take me years. How many more do I have?

A photo of the long lost dog. That one alone can do me in. I'll just put it here and walk away.

Mack