Making Something Good
I sometimes snicker cynically when I read the bits of lyrics from songs that people have posted. Not necessarily because I thing it’s a silly, adolescent activity, but rather because they provide little or no reasons for why they’re posting it. Context is everything when it comes to lyrics. With that said, you may be wondering why I posted the bit of lyrics from Laura Veirs’ song Make Something Good off of her 2010 release July Flame. Well, allow me to elaborate.
It is the desire to be a craftsman in whatever sphere of influence one has power over.
I wanted to make something built to last
A bottled ship with a golden mast
The need and desire to wield tools with mastery and create something lasting flows through the course of every human event and activity. What is crushing to learn, as we grow older, is that this need and desire doesn’t always end in the creation of something beautiful and lasting.
Still being relatively young, I wonder when the good things will finally come to full fruition. I wonder when the work of my hands will yield something so fine that even the gods will marvel. The truth is, like the song says, that it’s going to take a long, long time. This because the work of making something good never ceases. So whether it’s art, music, or love, making it good takes a lifetime.
It’s gonna take a long, long time
But we’re gonna make something so fine
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