Songs for the Day

Something a little different from yours truly today.  The first time I heard this song, I cried.  It made me think of my father for no other reason than I wished dearly that he had been consistent enough as a man to actually pass something like this down to me as a boy.  There are so many images in this song that DO remind me of my dad, though.  He went down the road in the rain and snow, and if ever there were a car I *would* associate with my dad, it would actually be an El Camino. 

My father left me many things that I did not expect to receive.  I know how to turn a wrench because of him. I got his temper when I was a younger man, as well as his short fuse that has taken a long time to mellow. I learned (indirectly) that it's okay to seek out something better for yourself if it benefits your family.  He showed me that you should never underestimate how many peoples' lives you touch. And he taught me (although it has taken me  along time to realize, appreciate, and understand that he did) that sacrificing one's *self* can add so much to your own life.  And that he did in spades.  Giving makes your own life better.  

My father is gone.  The standing joke with him was that his funeral would be empty. We always thought otherwise, but you know how that really goes, right?  you just never know.  When he died, we finally understood how many people my father's gifts touched.  The stream of people was almost comical, and the wake was standing-room-only.  I remember my mother, weeping, leaning into my shoulder and whispering to me "If he could only have seen this..."

I believe that what happens to us in the afterlife is entirely dependent on our beliefs.  So in that case, Dad, Did you see?

And we love you, miss you, and wish you were here. 

*I* wish you were here.




<3 <3


"Watched it coming up Winslow
Down South Park Boulevard
Yeah it was looking good from tail to hood
Great big fins and painted steel
Man it looked just like the Batmobile
With my old man behind the wheel

Well you could hardly even see him
In all of that chrome
The man with the plan and the pocket comb
But every night it carried him home
And I could hear him sayin'...

Don't gimme no Buick
Son you must take my word
If there's a God in heaven
He's got a Silver Thunderbird
You can keep your Eldorados
And the foreign car's absurd
Me I wanna go down
In a Silver Thunderbird

He got up every morning
While i was still asleep
But I remember the sound of him shuffling around
Then right before the crack of dawn
I heard him turn the motor on
But when I got up they were gone

Down the road in the rain and snow
The man and his machine would go
Oh the secrets that old car would know
Sometimes I hear him sayin'...

Don't gimme no Buick
Son you must take my word
If there's a God in heaven
He's got a Silver Thunderbird
You can keep your Eldorados
And the foreign car's absurd
Me I wanna go down
In a Silver Thunderbird"

Silver Thunderbird
Marc Cohn