This month, I’ve been on yet another Edwin McCain listening binge. For ten years, this singer-songwriter has been a soundtrack to my life. I’ve been playing his latest album, “Mercy Bound” on repeat, but today I share the very, very first song of his with which I fell in love, “The Rhythm of Life” (from 1997’s “Misguided Roses”):
Heaven withstanding and smiling we’re all swept away
The rhythm of life
Is not so demanding as some caught in narrows would say
Fragile as ships as we pass through Gibraltar
The sirens have long given way
Dark as the murky graveyard of sailors
Whispering secrets told in the crashing waves
The beating of hearts
Set walls to trembling the power of silence persuades
The stumbling feet
Stagger predestined we all end up wild eyed and crazed
And from the madness most jaded of vision
Reflections of horror invade
Running and falling relinquish your venom
The antidote surely will cause your affliction to fade
How little we know of what we are blessed with
Our shimmering island it turns
How little we look at what we see clearly
Of tragedy’s lessons not learned
Sleeping through classes we’ll make it up later
There’s still so much time left to go
Misguided roses we bloom in October
Emerging triumphant in time for the season’s first snow
hope of things not seen 