51

“Time isn’t after us. Time isn’t holding us…”
— David Byrne

Byrne’s words are not true, but they are of a class with all of the Great Lies: they give us the courage to face the lions, the compulsion to sail for Mecca, and comfort when the night is dark and the stars seem dim and distant.

I won’t say you’re only as old as you feel. I feel short of sleep and hungover. You are, however, only as old as you let yourself be. There is no video online I can find of the song “Sweet Thing” and it is too early in the morning for me to rip the song into something I could upload and share. Like all memorable tunes, if you know it the lyrics alone are enough to set it playing in your head. “And I will walk and talk/In gardens all wet with rain/And I will never, ever, ever,/Grow so old again…”

“Sweet Thing”
by Van Morrison

And I will stroll the merry way
And jump the hedges first
And I will drink the clear
Clean water for to quench my thirst
And I shall watch the ferry-boats
And they’ll get high
On a bluer ocean
Against tomorrow’s sky
And I will never grow so old again
And I will walk and talk
In gardens all wet with rain

Oh sweet thing, sweet thing
My, my, my, my, my sweet thing

And I shall drive my chariot
Down your streets and cry
hey, its me, I’m dynamite
And I don’t know why
And you shall take me strongly
In your arms again
And I will not remember
That I even felt the pain.
We shall walk and talk
In gardens all misty and wet with rain
And I will never, never, never
Grow so old again.

Oh sweet thing, sweet thing
My, my, my, my, my sweet thing

And I will raise my hand up
Into the night time sky
And count the stars
That’s shining in your eye
Just to dig it all and not to wonder
Thats just fine
And I’ll be satisfied
Not to read in between the lines
And I will walk and talk
In gardens all wet with rain
And I will never, ever, ever, ever
Grow so old again.
Oh sweet thing, sweet thing
Sugar-baby with your champagne eyes
And your saint-like smile…

Added later: The transcendent version by the Waterboys found on MySpace.