Monday, October 15, 2012
Music Lyric Monday: Wide Open Spaces
Wide Open Spaces
Who doesn't know what I'm talking about?
Who's never left home, who's never struck out
to find a dream and a life of their own?
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone
Many precede and many will follow
A young girl's dream no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She traveled this road as a child
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She knows the high stakes
As her folks drive away, her dad yells, "Check the oil!"
Mom stares out the window and says, "I'm leaving my girl."
She said, "It didn't seem like that long ago
when she stood there and let her own folks know. . ."
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes
~ The Dixie Chicks
_________________________________________
Today is the day my dear friend David M. officially moves away. The truck has been packed and his things have been sent. And right about now, he is somewhere pumping gas into his car and preparing to make that drive to Pennsylvania.
Something about this song has kept making me think of him. I feel myself inserting "he" in the place of "she" and imagining my wonder twin moving away from what had been his cozy professional home for something else. For some wide open spaces that, for him, could no longer be found where he was.
Everyone was stunned. Leaving? Atlanta? Now? Yes.
I can't say I was fully shocked. As his close friend I'd seen him itching for those wide open spaces and that zone of unpredictability that gives you room to make your big mistakes. For him, it was time. And yes. He knows the high stakes.
I've always loved that song and any song that's open for many interpretations. I always believed that we all face points in our lives where we need "wide open spaces." Sometimes it's just a simple redefinition of who we are. Other times it's a big step like packing up and moving to a completely different place. Those "new faces" can be in the literal sense or in the figurative sense with how we see and interact those around us.
Yeah.
I love the dichotomy between the words "a place in the clouds, a foundation of stone." That made me think of my friend Angella Lister, whose daughter recently left for college. Those words touch me, reminding me that at some point we have to turn our children loose to live their dreams. We hope that we've equipped them with a solid sense of self and some kind of road map telling them how to give and receive authentic love. Because that? That's the foundation of stone that will allow those dreams to come true. Or at least a comeback if a failure is involved.
So yeah. My friend Angella is living this. Her youngest now out of the house which has left her husband and her home in what some call an "empty nest." But as I type those words, I imagine that parents whose children have recently left the home aren't so keen on this term. Me? I like to think of this as a transition to some wide open spaces for Angella and her husband. Room to do things that parents with children in their homes don't always get to do.
Also. I think of my mother when I hear that song. Growing up in a college town and then, much to her chagrin, moving all the way to Africa with her family after her father took a job in Liberia. Right before her senior year of high school, no less. Interestingly, she returned straight back to that same college town she'd grown up in to attend college. But that didn't last long. She met a handsome fraternity boy who would later become her husband. And also my father. He was a senior and she just a freshman. They married and had a baby. A bit stunning to her parents to say the least.
And then? Dad's first real job? Out west. All the way in California. Now. Were her parents exactly delighted with all of these things changing so fast in their daughter's life? Uuuhh, my guess is not so much. But now that the whole thing has played itself out it's so clear. She needed wide open spaces, man. More room to make her big mistakes and to find her place in the clouds. But look at her life and you'd know that she'd had a foundation of stone that kept her grounded.
Yep.
So those are the lyrics I'm reflecting on today. Listening to this again reminded me of how much I loved this song. And the Dixie Chicks--particularly that era. Their esprit de corps back then always made me want to run off and join a blue grass band. Particularly the fiddle parts.
What do you see when you read those words? What wide open spaces have you explored?
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I love love that song. And this post.! Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteWhoops--see see my reply below!
DeleteI miss the Dixie Chicks so much. This song- yeah- it's a good one. It's been there for me before. I love how you love your community, no matter what wide open spaces they're traveling.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love that you love the Dixie Chicks, too. Can't you just see me playing that fiddle? What do you think? Hugs to you. I hope today is better than yesterday was.
DeleteThanks, Kim. Great minds think alike, no? I love, love, love that song, too. I've listened to it probably 7,000 times this weekend. (In between the James Taylor songs on loop!) Have an amazing week, too!
ReplyDeleteLove that song. Love this post. Love Angella and you too. I've always had a touch of wanderlust and the ability to pack up and follow my man. The day I introduced my parents to my new boyfriend was also the day I told them we were moving from Delaware to Indiana. My mom was not happy, but I reminded her she crossed an ocean to be with my Dad in Germany. She had no comeback for that one. I married that guy, so it all worked out.
ReplyDeleteI still have some wanderlust and always wonder if where I am is where I'm supposed to be, but my home is where my heart is, with this man and these two kids. I hope I've got the good sense to let my kids fly when it's time, but just thinking about that makes my breath quicken! Thank goodness for the blog support group and the soundtrack.
xo
Ain't that the truth? I love that word "wanderlust." And yes, I am also thankful for the blog support group and the soundtrack that is always playing. :)
DeleteDavid is leaving??? Nooooo!
ReplyDeleteIn case he reads this: Good luck from your #1 fan in California!
You know I love the Dixie Chicks (favorite song: Not ready to make nice!) I also love Wide Open Spaces. I'm such a creature of habit... On of these days I'll go explore the rest of the world outside of Inglewood & Atlanta. ;-)
I've definitely embraced the "she needs new faces" aspect of it... just taking a leap and loving myself enough to really embrace the people that REALLY love me! It's been kinda awesome ;-)
Xoxo,
Biz
Yeeeessss! He's leaving! Well, he left. Okay but yes, you have embraced "new faces" haven't you? Good for you.
Deletelove you, Biz!
K-Miz
Never heard the song, but love the message. A great aspect of moving away from the comfort of "foundation of stone" is being able to reinvent yourself.
DeleteD- I absolutely LOVE that song. Gets me every time.
DeleteMy sons found their wide open spaces and live in Beijing and Dakar. People ask me "why did they leave?' (People in Philadelphia are a little provincial ) and I answer that they had deep roots and giant wings. Let's hope it is not that they had a miserable childhood!
ReplyDeleteGosh, as I was reading this, I was thinking, "This reminds me of, well, ME, and then - there I was, mentioned in your story! Those "wide open spaces" have influenced my life more than once. In fact, that's what led me back to the south. I believe that everything that happens in life leads you to where you are right now, perhaps where you were meant to be. My journey has had a few ups and downs for sure, but I am exactly where I want/need to be!
ReplyDelete"I believe that everything that happens in life leads you to where you are right now, perhaps where you were meant to be." Amen to THAT sentiment. Similarly, I believe that the person we each are today is a result of each day we've lived up to this point...for better or worse! My restlessness and desire for Wide Open Spaces has taken me to Africa and the spirit remains alive in me as I am potentially about to undertake a several-month-long journey around the world.
DeleteAnd, oh, how I love Mary Alice's expression, "deep roots and giant wings". I will remember that......
ReplyDeleteOh Kimberly, you are so right. The nest isn't really empty, not at all. It quickly becomes filled with other things, sweet things, and from time to time those babies come back home from their own wide open spaces, their wings stronger and spread wider every time.
ReplyDeleteThank you for linking me, sweet friend. I feel a need to apologize that anyone who clicks the link today is going to land on a rant about the 24/7 news cycle, nothing quite so uplifting as what they'll find here!
But I'm so grateful for that song today, and the thoughts you express here, and the way you lift my family up in the most hopeful and loving light, and I am so grateful for you in my life, you wouldn't believe how much.
And as for your friend, he's never gone from you. He's just expanded your world to a new geography, because it seems to me that when those we love push their own boundaries, the enlarge the world for the rest of us too.
Love to you, dear Kimberly, and your beautiful family.