Take The Long Way Home

Life is a funny confluence of events, leading me to believe God has a purpose.  Or a sense of irony.  Or maybe a sense of humor.

On Monday I closed one curtain.  It was a curtain that had been open for two years and a number of good things had happened as a result, but (as with many things) it was time to bring the curtain down, if only for a time.  The curtain was closed prior to the typical event on Wednesday.

And then on Wednesday, another event happened, one I had not expected.  One that was made possible because of the cancellation of the first event.

The Other Event was good as well, the sort of thing that went very well indeed.  But the sort of thing that leaves you driving home looking into a horizon beyond which you cannot see.

Life is full of paths not taken, roads not traveled.  I suppose we like to believe that we always make the best choices possible based on the circumstances, but sometimes the whole thing leaves one a bit behind, as if Life has moved on and left you behind.

Without the one thing, the other would not have happened.  And I believe that God is active in our lives, bringing events and people into our lives for His purposes, not necessarily our own.  So the one thing was meant to happen, and so was the other.

Driving home, looking into the Northern sky and feeling the hot summer heat radiating through the car, I felt a bit like Treebeard:  almost alone in a world that had moved on, confined to the borders of my land.  The future was here, but I was apparently not.

And then "Take The Long Way Home" by SuperTramp showed up in my mind.

It described my state of mind perfectly:  life is a stage and always playing to the gallery is what we do, even as the self importance we ascribe to ourselves is mostly in our mind.    I found the song on You Tube and played it, singing along at the top of my lungs.

And yes, sometimes I do look through the years and see what I could of been, what I might have been, if I made different decisions.

But mostly now, I take the Long Way Home.

So you think you're a Romeo
playing a part in a picture-show
Take the long way home
Take the long way home

'Cause you're the joke of the neighborhood
Why should you care if you're feeling good
Take the long way home
Take the long way home

But there are times that you feel you're part of the scenery
All the greenery is comin' down, boy
And then your wife seems to think you're part of the
furniture oh, it's peculiar, she used to be so nice.

When lonely days turn to lonely nights
You take a trip to the city lights
And take the long way home
Take the long way home

You never see what you want to see
Forever playing to the gallery
You take the long way home
Take the long way home

And when you're up on the stage, it's so unbelievable,
Oh unforgettable, how they adore you,
But then your wife seems to think you're losing your sanity,
Oh, calamity, is there no way out?

Does it feel that your life's become a catastrophe?
Oh, it has to be for you to grow , boy.
When you look through the years and see what you could
have been oh, what you might have been,
If you'd had more time.

So, when the day comes to settle down,
Who's to blame if you're not around?
You took the long way home
You took the long way home...
(Richard Davies/Roger Hodgson)