A ghost from a wishing well

Once upon a time . . . .

On a street lined with white oak trees, white mailboxes numbered in black paint and children playing, there are seven houses. Nothing special. Just a street in suburbia somewhere. Could be your street or even my street. The houses are all the same size and of equal age. Some are dressed up to look more sophisticated than the others but, nothing out of the ordinary . . . . on the outside. The street is alive with the sounds and smells of another Saturday on a street lined with white oak trees. On the inside of one of those normal houses sits a young man, alone with his conscience and a guitar. The house, once overflowing with life and the love of a young couple, now sits empty except for the young man, a guitar and his memories. Surveying the damage wrought by the loss of his lover, he wonders where we went wrong. He feels like a ghost who will never be free. Doomed to wander through the memories and the halls of this castle dark. The melody from his guitar echoes down the hall in a sad and somber tone expressing his empathy for the empty house. He wishes his lost lover could have read his mind, read between the lines and know what his heart was trying to say. He would like to move on, he can't. As he plays the sad melody over and over, the words begin to flow and the sad melody embraces even sadder lyrics. The song and the young man are now one in the same. For at that moment in his life, after his divorce became a reality, Gordon Lightfoot sits in the house once belonging to two young lovers on the eve of a happy ever after. He writes "If you could read my mind". The young man has captured a moment in time, a moment of his life and then he shares that moment with the world. Without even trying, Gordon has written a song that expresses a single moment in time, a single moment of his life and a moment in the lives of far too many others.

Some might say that it was just a song. I say it is a painting of the moment expressed in the hues of his heart. That song moves me every time I hear it. That song takes me to a "castle dark" and I feel the "chains upon my feet". I too become a ghost who will never be free as long as I am a ghost my lost love can't see. 

In our lives we only have so many days and moments, why not share. If we never speak the words upon our minds to the one we love. They will never know and we may end up with chains upon our feet in a castle dark. 

"'If you could read my mind love

What a tale my thoughts could tell

Just like an old time movie

Bout a ghost from a wishin' well

In a castle dark or a fortress strong

With chains upon my feet

You know that ghost is me

And I will never be set free

As long as I'm a ghost that you can't see" 

                           "Unspoken words and unlived moments make for good bedfellows"

~Jester