I took off for a
weekend last month just to try
recall the whole year
I don’t think I could be a part of any online enterprise that purports to celebrate word play and to recognize anyone who consciously uses words in way that causes joy just in the wonderful way something could be said and not give a shout out to examples wherever they occur.
Like I took off for a weekend last month just to try and recall the whole year.
With that in mind, I will mention Jimmy Buffett.
I am no parrot head and I never went to concert, but I enjoyed his music and his lyrics and applauded and aspired to his off work lifestyle.
The first song of his I remember had the line, “If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane“
I heard the line.
Then worked it out.
Then laughed and laughed.
It really is clever to the point that double meaning doesn’t seem to do justice to the wit involved.
I listened to his music.
It is really odd to say that I was having a bad work day yesterday, if having a bad work day working for a beach side resort is possible (end of the month reports), so I played Jimmy Buffett all afternoon while working bare foot in my home office.
That night, I heard of Mr. Buffett’s passing.
Felt bad for us but good for him and I hope he landed on beach somewhere (If there’s a heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached) and I also was glad that I was playing his music that afternoon and I thought that had someone described the scene of me at home, me in my favorite ratty blue jeans without knees and barefoot, writing reports about how many people visited a web site to learn about staying at the beach, Mr. Buffett would have liked that.
So today I will think of his song, Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes and when I take my grand daughter to the beach this after, maybe I will try to sing it.
I can sing to my grand children but that is about the only audience that will listen to me.
At least, in the sand of the beach, I will scratch out the refrain.
If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane
If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane
As he sang, ““Only time will tell if it was time well-spent.”
Here are the complete lyrics to the song “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.”
I took off for a weekend last month just to try and recall the whole year
All of the faces and all of the places wonderin’ where they all disappeared
I didn’t ponder the question too long, I was hungry and went out for a bite
Ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and we wound up drinkin’ all night
It’s those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of our running and all of our cunning
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane
Reading departure signs in some big airport reminds me of the places I’ve been
Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure makes me want to go back again
If it suddenly ended tomorrow I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times and riches and son-of-a-bitches I’ve seen more than I can recall
These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
Through all of the islands and all of the highlands
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane
I think about Paris when I’m high on red wine I wish I could jump on a plane
So many nights I just dream of the ocean, god I wish I was sailin’ again
Oh, yesterday’s over my shoulder, so I can’t look back for too long
There’s just too much to see waiting in front of me and I know that I just can’t go wrong
With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of my running and all of my cunning
If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane
If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane
If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane
No Haiku For You 