music, books, love and kindness

Last night I checked out Christopher Cross's "Greatest Hits" from my library and I shamefully listened to the whole thing with pleasure. I hadn't really thought about his music in years, but I have always been fond of "Sailing" (it's so peaceful and majestic) and "Think of Laura" (a huge sobfest of a song!).

Little did I know he had done more recent stuff (well, recent as in 1998) like the amazing "Walking in Avalon" (which is still bouncing around in my head). "Walking in Avalon" is probably the oddest sweet love song I've ever heard! Cross even suggests a very naughty 4-letter word that he doesn't sound out but makes obvious by rhyme what it would have been (he hums in the word's place...I love it!!!)

Also "new" to me was the song "Back of My Mind" which really got to me when I thought about life and how we reach that age where we can sometimes wonder if we did things wrong...and would a "do over" be a good thing? The part about not marrying and having children hits especially close to home.

The lyrics go like this:



I woke up to my world this morning
Took a long look in the looking glass
Last night I guess I had one or too many
Somebody tried to tell me I had no class

What ever happened to me
Maybe I've been living on lies
Never really had a dream come true
Then again I guess I never really tried


Now the years all slip away
And things are like they're gonna stay
All the roads I didn't take are just
One more thing in the back of my mind
Taking space and time


Wish I'd finished that book I never started
Maybe that's the story of my life
Should've learned to play that saxophone
So I could tell my song to the streetlight


Shouldn't have been so stuck on my own
Could've had a wife and a child
Should've made that house a home
I don't know why my life is so wild


Now the years all slip away
And things are like they're gonna stay
All the chances I didn't take are just
One more thing in the back of my mind
Taking space and time
One more thing in the back of my mind


So I'm thinking about a walk in the sunlight
I've got to get my shadow behind me
Try and make some sense of it all
With my feet on the ground and my heart still free


As the years will slip away
I'll let the cards fall where they may
And all the roads I didn't take will be just
One more thing in the back of my mind


As the years will slip away
And the cards fall as they may
All the chances I didn't take will be just
One more thing in the back of my mind
Taking space and time
One more thing in the back of my mind
One more thing in the back of my mind