Nightcap 28. Love Soldiers On

Love never puts down the oar.

Dear Friends,

Sometimes I just need to sing loudly, so hopefully somebody out there needs to hear a song. Sometimes I need to listen just as badly — to Marvin Gaye or Court and Spark — some kinda sonic nutrition. I really do believe that invisible work we all do of putting love in the world makes a difference, the unseen of keeping hearts open (my own included), the imprints we make being human and vulnerable each day.

I’ve written plenty of sad songs (well hopefully they had layers — hope, sweat, lessons, more than one shade of color but that’s beside the point here) whose point of origin is long gone. Love Soldiers On was a lifeline I wrote to myself. I was sitting on the floor of my apartment in NY thinking I had fumbled every good thing in my life. My career had failed, my marriage had failed; I was pretty convinced it was my fault and I was broken. But I wasn’t broken. And neither is this funny, strange world. Love is tireless, far more that we are. It works out of the spotlight, in the wings, without palaver. It’s a bit of a haunting to sing this song now from the other side of the river — from a life and work full of more goodness than I could have ever seen from that apartment window. So I sing it now to whatever side of the river is just out of sight. Love won’t put down the oar.