Friday, August 20, 2010

"Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)",

As a huge fan of music from the 1960's and 1970's I heard The Byrds "Turn! Turn! Turn!" this morning on the way to work and wanted to blog about the meaning of song to me. For those who don't know the song, the lyrics are noted below.

Suffice to say that in Las Vegas, the change of traditional seasons doesn't often allow the perspective that other areas of the country have - we don't go from steamy summers to crisp falls to winter wonderlands to spring thaws. For better or for worse, we live under a scorching sun 360 days a year and the heat that goes along with it. Our 10 days of winter ususally occur in January, following by a week of spring and 2 months of windstorms, then the heat sets in from April to November. Nice.

I am using the heat as a metaphor for absence of change that living in the desert brings. The subtle changes are just that - subtle, slow and often imperceptible to those of us who live here. That's why the song Turn, Turn, Turn had me humming it long after my radio had moved on to Peter Frampton.....

There have been some seismic life changes happen in our family over the past few months and just like the song says, there is a time for every purpose.

As I embark on a new business venture, I've left the weirdness of my past employer behind me. In the wake of that train wreck some relationships became collateral damage and were jetisoned but others were gained in the process. Alec and Tiffany have left Janae's (and mine) "Camelot" (Salt Lake City) and moved to Reno for medical school leaving friends and making new ones where his days are filled soaking up biochemistry, histology, and anatomy lectures that he loves so much. Tiffany is ready to bring their first child into the world within a month while our Jake-Jake is preparing for school at UNLV and to be one of the student team managers for the Runnin' Rebels basketball team that he loves so much. Janae continues to keep us all on track in her own wacky and wondeful way.

The song paints a picture of what life is really all about. Change. If you're not living, you're not changing (I just made that up, haha).

So read the words to the song and realize that stuff happens, shit happens, and then it starts all over again. Life is like that and that's what makes it so wonderful, sad, happy, funny, joyous, and fun.

Words-adapted from The Bible, book of Ecclesiastes
Music-Pete Seeger

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to build up,a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace, a time to refrain from embracing

To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)
There is a season (Turn, Turn, Turn)
And a time to every purpose, under Heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it's not too late

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