My Thought for the Day

"Closer To Fine" - The Indigo Girls

I'm trying to tell you something about my life
Maybe give me insight between black and white
The best thing you've ever done for meIs to help me take my life less seriously,
it's only life after all

Well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable
And lightness has a call that's hard to hear
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it,
I'm crawling on your shore.

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questionspointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.

I went to see the doctor of philosophy
With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee
He never did marry or see a B-grade movie
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paperAnd I was free.

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questionspointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.

I stopped by the bar at 3 a.m.
To seek solace in a bottle or possibly a friend
I woke up with a headache like my head against a board
Twice as cloudy as I'd been the night before
I went in seeking clarity.

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questionspointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains
I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain
There's more than one answer to these questionspointing me in crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine.

We go to the bible, we go through the workout
We read up on revival and we stand up for the lookout
There's more than one answer to these questionspointing me in a crooked line
The less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine
The closer I am to fine
The closer I am to fine

I've had really interesting conversations about what is "right" and what is "wrong lately." What is "black" and what is "white." And centered in these conversations is the idea of, what is our responsibility to ourselves, our families, our communities, our country and our world.

We seem, as a country, to want definitives. As Americans, we don't like having to take a "side." That would require an action on our part. We'd rather passively accept what is spoon-fed to us and then forever gripe about the wrongness of the people doing the feeding. We don't want responsibility.

At the same time, we don't want people forcing us to do one thing or another. We demand absolute freedom and make a mockery of conventions.

Over the past several years, I've seriously been looking at the world outside of the lexicon in which I was raised, and I still haven't come up with a "definitive."

Today, this song struck a chord with me. Because for once, I feel like it's okay that I don't have a definitive answer. And I might just be better off without some.