A Hundred Years of Rain

I remember so well hearing James Taylor for the first time. I was a freshman at UT, Knoxville, driving home to my apartment. I heard a guitar played in a way I'd never heard before. An extraordinary voice came through that so-so radio. Then, O my God, such harmony. I actually had to pull my old Ford Galaxy over to the side of the road--I was so lost in the song it wasn't safe to keep driving.

James Taylor has written so many wonderful songs over the years. I love listening to him.

Yet like almost all song writers, way too many of his songs are about eros love. Our culture puts way to much hope and weight on finding fulfillment in romantic relationships.

A wonderful partner is a wonderful thing, but nobody can make anybody else whole. We must tend to our wholeness ourselves and cultivate love in many, many other ways.

There's a wonderful line near the end of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Benedick, who has been sparring with Beatrice the whole play (and we've been hoping all along they'll figure out they love other) finally realizes the moment is right and, recognizing that Beatrice is feeling sad and tired a little lost, he offers her (very tenderly!) this advice:

    "Serve God. Love me. And mend!"

It's such a lovely moment in the play. And pretty close to good advice.

Except that to serve God and truly mend, we have to widen and deepen and focus our love beyond one lover. And I don't mean that we should be serially monogamous or poly-amorous!

I mean we have a reservoir of love that's big enough to spill over, at least potentially, everywhere we are and onto everyone we're with. Springs of living water--enough and more to sustain complete and complex gardens.

Something marvelous, of priceless beauty, can grow in flower pot. It takes something bigger to grow a garden.

I love JT's songs. Mean Old Man is a great example of his great writing.

Listen to it again or scan the lyrics below. Think about how all of us need saving from time to time--and how wonderful it is to be cared about and cherished--to have our hearts buoyed up--to feel delivered from 'a hundred years of rain.'

Care deeply about yourself. Tend to your own wholeness. Cultivate your deepest places. Fill up with living water. Allow that water to flow on to wider places.

    Serve God. Love many. Mend.
    Tend the world.

---

Mean Old Man
by James Taylor

On my own
How could I have known?
Imagine my surprise
Just a fool
From a tree full of fools
Who can't believe his eyes
Imagine my surprise

I was a mean old man
I was an ornery cuss
I was a dismal Dan
I made an awful fuss
Ever since my life began
Man, it was ever thus
I was a nasty tyke who was hard to like

I had to misbehave
I did things in reverse
Refused to wash or shave
I was horrid to my nurse
I got back what I gave
Which only made me worse
I had to have my way
Which was bleak and gray, oh dear

Living in here
One hundred years of rain
Such a drag
This riches to rags
With just myself to blame
A dirty low-down shame

Silly me
Silly old me
Somewhere outside my mind
Clever you
Walking me through
Willing to lead the blind
Just in the nick of time

Who gets a second chance?
Who gets to have some fun?
Who gets to learn to dance
Before his race is run?
Who gets to shed his skin?
Who comes up born again?
Who was a mean old man
'Til you turned him into a golden retriever
Puppy dog
Who's a good boy?