To the editor:
The right music can take the weight from this world off of my shoulders. One of my most favorite musicians is Van Morrison. His music makes time feel like it is standing still, just waiting for me to savor every moment. I ventured to San Francisco with my 15-year-old daughter to be with a friend of mine from third grade in celebration for her wedding. I had not seen some of my friends in 30 years. I thought I would be taken back to a time when togetherness simply mattered.
The grandness of the covenantal gesture, graced by San Francisco City Hall, colored the ceremony with the permanence of gold refined by fire. They had been committed to one another for more than two decades before tying the legal knot. Truly, it surpassed anything I have personally experienced. It was elegant and felt timeless. Like Debra Winger being carried away by Richard Gere in “An Officer & A Gentleman,” most memorable is the fact that my friend had been seen and chosen. Isn’t this what all of us want: to be seen and heard — not just chosen.
Take me back to a time when life seemed simple, yes, but also graceful and eternal, Morrison sings. My friend’s reception, unlike the wedding ceremony, felt temporal and sensual, spearheading me into the inebriation and disconnect of current culture. I traveled across the U.S. to celebrate life and love. We are in Marblehead, each one of us, for the same. May the noise and distractions around us not blind us to those right in front of us. It might be the local coffee shop barista that we have overlooked, or someone who lives on the other side of the tracks.
The record store venue and open bar might be considered ‘cool’ but children were not invited (later tolerated) and the invitation to drink to oblivion was a menace to making merry, at least the kind my heavy heart longed for.
Life is simple when it is light on the spirit, soul and body. Children bring the lightness of being, like the right kind of music. I tried to move my body (and those who know me know that I love dancing) but I would end up back at the bar, trying to forget about the fun I was not having.
We are all going from one place to another; we are all on a journey of many waters. Our boat can rest in peaceful waters but turbulence is a given. The winds can change everything. Time is feeling like it is moving faster everyday because it is. It is not just technology that is advancing beyond our ability to comprehend it fully: our lives are moving faster. Take me back to a slower pace, to a time when the presence of another person mattered more than forgetting about what matters.
We can choose to go with the tides of the times and culture — or not. We can choose to keep our innocence, however marred our experiences or disconnected from the simple we have strayed. We can choose to make sure that we have children around us, for they are a blessing — not a burden. They not only keep us real, they keep us in the simple and the fun.
“Getting, getting, getting kind of heavy….”
We can return to our innocence, to a simpler time, but we cannot cross over oblivious to why we come together in the first place. We don’t need to forget: we must remember what matters and never forget.
Brendalee Baughman
Broughton Road
