(About a 1 minute read)
You know how it goes, Bee,
Some people are happy, but their lives break a lot,
And not usually in ways they expect or can prepare for.
They plan their futures but then they shrug
Because they know they’re just going though the motions.
Each time something breaks, they learn a little more
About the world and about themselves.
Sometimes as they get older they have learned so much
They almost know something.
You know how it goes, Bee.
You know how it goes, Bee,
Some people are happy, but their lives break a lot
Putting them on the road so often they become travelers.
“Nothing much seems to last but the rain”, they think,
“Why not travel a bit, see the world, now that I’m free?
Seems like it might be a good idea.”
You know how it goes, Bee.
You know how it goes, Bee,
Some people’s lives break a lot, so learning new things
Becomes their way of getting renewed, being reborn.
They grow old in all the lesser ways of course,
But even as they grow older, they’re still having up to six
Big discoveries a day – almost like a child!
Some people are happy but their lives break a lot,
So they become travelers.
You know how it goes, Bee.
fascinating … i did my learning and travelling when I was young … now I’m trying to integrate it 🙂
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Interesting! It can take awhile to absorb life experiences, can’t it? I wonder if we ever fully absorb them at all?
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they shape but don’t define us …
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Very much agree with you, Kate.
😀 I can’t help but insufferably add, so do biology and genetics. They agree with you, too.
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The message is not soothing, but the song somehow is. Very artful construction.
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I wish I could claim full credit for the construction, Carla, but with me luck so often plays a decisive role in such things as a poem’s construction. I think my strength is metaphor, but not construction. I’m glad you enjoyed that aspect of it.
You probably guessed Bee is a real person. She’s pretty happy these days, but you’re certainly right — her life story has not been one most of us would prefer to have. Nothing heinous, though, thankfully. Just a whole lot of instability.
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‘Some people’s lives break a lot, so learning new things
Becomes their way of getting renewed, being reborn.’ That, my friend, touches home.
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Do you feel like telling me some of the details, bro? By email, if you are not comfortable speaking publicly?
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Shall write a detailed email to you Paul 🙂
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It took me almost 10 minutes to read , reread and then sigh.. and then repeat that cycle. We have no choice but to accept what happens and then to tell our mind that we choose to he happy under any circumstance. And the biggest advantage is that we can fool our mind by telling something over and over again. So when I say “I am happy” a thousand times, my mind believes that I am happy.
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If you read it that carefully, Deepa, then you and I must take a DNA test to see if we are kin, I now and then read a work that way. 😀
It seems to me you speak a lot of truth about fooling ourselves into thinking we’re happy. I also think that happiness — sustained and genuine happiness — is very hard for humans under 50 or so to come by. Until then, telling yourself you’re happy is usually the wisest thing to do in so far as it carries you through so much misery you might not otherwise get through without turning bitter, cynical, or worse.
I am so grateful to you for such an admirable reading of the poem.
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