What I was going to write, when I sat down at my desk this morning, was the conclusion to the second story in the Birki’s coming of age tale and maybe some sort of summary of the last year on the blog. I’d been thinking about these two things, sort of a pre-writing construction exercise, since I woke up to the chill, snow blanketed morning and blue sky to share a steaming cuppa with my lovely wife. I had it all worked out, what I was going to write, when I sat down and put my fingers to the keys.
The problem started when I put my headphones on my ears and called up Rdio to stream some music while I practiced my craft. There were a couple of notifications waiting for me in the upper right hand corner of the browser and I hate leaving those unanswered. They nag at me. If you want me to take care of something, just cut out a bright, red circle of paper, add an arbitrary white number in the center, and affix it near the thing you want done. Post-it could make a fortune with that idea and the mental health industry would discover a pile of new patients.
So I clicked the notifications to discover an artist I enjoy had a new single out. Bon Iver has re-recorded “Beth/Rest”. I clicked play. And I’ve been sitting here externally stunned and internally roiling ever since.
This song does not need words, at least not for me. It is the sound. Like the howl of a lonely wolf, it speaks to me without requirement of meaning. It is a sound that pushes my soul around, leading it in a dance around the tribal fire.
Now all my planning has fled. If I wrote on paper, I’d toss the stack into the air.
FeetForBrains 