My last dispatch was from as far away as I could get this summer, the tip of a peninsula off Nova Scotia. After that, we spent a few days by Lake Ossipee in New Hampshire before returning to the Texas heat. I especially appreciated those last few days of vacation knowing they would soon end.
Walking back from the beach by the lake, I started singing to myself: “There’s nothing like the sun and the sand…” and this song was born. That night I fell asleep to the rain in the trees and had a vivid nightmare (as I often did while away). When I arrived back home to happy dogs that needed walking and wilting plants that needed watering, I was glad to be busy back home.
That’s the story told in the verses of this song about how getting away is made sweeter by impending return. And how what we learn while away is buried back in our busy days.
The chorus comes from another place, Irvin Yalom, a great psychiatrist whose books I discovered last year. In the relaxed mood of unscheduled afternoons I thought about his existential view of the human condition (which you will discover upon listening) and how we make peace on those ideal days with all the difficult realities we must return to.
There’s Something (Irv Said)
Capo on 3rd fret
There’s nothing like the sun and the sand
C G
The feeling of a smooth rock in the palm of your hand
Em B7
Sneaking a peek at the girls getting tans
C D
Forgetting for an hour about all of your plans
There’s something ‘
Lying on the beach just watching kids play
Everything’s so simple when you’re not in the maze
But you know you’ve got go home in a few days
Em Bm
Your isolation, your mortality
C G
Your meaninglessness and your freedom
Em B7
As Irvin said, these four things are given
Now it’s up to you to do go something with em
There’s nothing like the rain in the trees
Outside your
Waking to the thunder in the middle of the night
Staring at the dark between the flashes of
There’s something
You know it’s not true but it’s all you can feel
I dreamt that you left me cause I didn’t understand
In the morning you told me you’d never abandon me
Isolation, mortality
Meaninglessness a-and freedom
As Irvin said, these four things are given
So get out of your head and find yourself a rhythm
There’s nothing like arriving back home
When you’ve been gone for a while and your sick of the road
The dogs are all their wagging their tails at the door
You water the plants feeling totally restored
There’s something out there calling your name
It opens a door on how the whole thing gets framed
But back in your
That you forget what it said like a secret you keep
Isolation, mortality
Meaninglessness a-and freedom
As Irvin said, these four things are given
So take a nice vacation and go do some
There’s something.
