I was talking with someone last week about this song. Well, actually we were talking about what this song is about, I’d completely forgotten about this piece. The conversation had rolled around for a while and we found ourselves talking about how putting someone up on a pedestal removes them from the normal human experience. I think I was pointing out that in fact it’s sometimes a way that people convince themselves that whatever is good in that person is completely unattainable for us mere mortals. They’re up on that pedestal, and they’re perfect, and I could never be that. So I don’t have to try.
I figure it’s the same kind of thought-mechanism that some folks are trying to use when they tell me they are convinced that the reason why I am ’so musical’ is because ‘musical ability is genetic’. What I’ve discovered in these conversations over the years is that they’re trying to close the door on not ‘being musical’ themselves. They’re convinced that musical grooviness is purely genetic. And since ‘no one in their family is musical’, then it’s okay that they’re not musical themselves. Makes their personal disappointment easier somehow. The theory kind of falls apart when I explain that there was no music in my family. Nope, none.
Anyway, it’s maybe just a little too weird that I’ve actually written a song about that whole thought, but there you are. I guess the thought is that pedestals are no good for nobody. I think the song maybe says it better.
the song–>Wisdom from the CD ‘The Long View’, 2006 (LV001)