Thursday, November 03, 2016

Off topic: Wisdom from Harry Chapin

I thought we all could use this.

The late Harry Chapin on life and his grandfather

"My grandfather was a painter. He died at age eighty-eight, he illustrated Robert Frost's first two books of poetry and he was looking at me and he said, 'Harry, there are two kinds of tired: there's good-tired, and there's bad-tired.'
He said, 'Ironically enough, bad-tired can be a day that you won. You won. But you won other people's battles, you lived other people's days, other people's agendas, other people's dreams and when it was all over there was very little "you" in there, and when you hit the hay at night, somehow you toss and turn--you don't settle easy. Good-tired, ironically enough, can be a day that you lost. You lost. But you knew you fought your battles, you chased your dreams, you lived your days, and when you hit the hay at night, you settle easy--you sleep the sleep of the just, and you can say "take me away."'
He said, 'Harry, all my life I've painted. God, I would've loved to be more successful, but I painted and I painted, and I am good-tired and they can take me away.'
Now, if there is a process in your and my lives in the insecurity that we have about a prior life or an afterlife and God--I hope there is a God. If He is-- if He does exist He's got a rather weird sense of humor, however. But let's just-- But if there's a process that will allow us to live our days and will allow us that degree of equanimity towards the end, looking at that black, implacable wall of death, to allow us that degree of peace, that degree of non-fear, I want in."


2 comments:

Steve Plambeck said...

Wow Matt, Harry was rather special to me and this was a beautiful thing to run across. Gonna share this on Facebook because I have family and friends that will appreciate this. - Steve

Matt Bille said...

Thanks, Steve. He was one of the great lyricists of all time: I have every song he ever recorded.