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Re: rhapsodie
In a message dated 7/12/99 9:51:42 PM, debflinch at excite_com wrote:
>Several years/months ago I found this on one of the websites that someone
>has up on OTR website.
>Here's the intro Karin does to Rhapsodie:
>
>You had to ask
>What crazy thoughts
>Were going through my head
>Well your photographs
>Still sittin' on
>The table by my bed
>(isn't it?)
>Though many years have gone by
>And some unkind,
>Yours is the only body
>I want next to mine...
>
>Would you say that this person is a current love or a former love who is
>being mourned obviously for a very long time. This just really expresses the
>way I feel right now - my significant other of 2.5 years broke up with me. I
>tried to save the relationship but you can not make someone do something
>they don't wish. So, I had to let go because I really do love him very much.
>I guess the entire Rhaposodie song just makes me sad and feel better at the
>same time. Well I am pities myself enough to the list sorry if I have
>offened anyone.
>Debbie
I meant to answer this WEEKS ago!
The way I parse it is thus: man says to woman, essentially, perhaps after a
tiff, "Well? What are you thinking? Are you contemplating leaving?" To which
she replies, "Well, I still keep your picture in my bedroom, don't I? Crazy
as things get, and as bad as it's gotten sometimes, you're still the only
one."
I think the song as a whole is about accepting that loving someone doesn't
obligate them to love you in return-- love in and of itself does not compel
others to do our bidding slavishly. It's a hard lesson to learn, and it ranks
right up there with, "Life isn't always fair." (Or, relatedly, "Life _is_
pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.") And
sometimes all we're left with is the knowledge that we _can_ love, that we
_can_ be strong in and of ourselves.
I think that's more or less the slant of the entire song: "I love you, but I
understand that I do not own you." That those things that we are afraid of in
relationships are probably things we don't yet understand, but could learn
from. That sometimes, the best thing we can do for someone we love is to
recognise that maybe we're not the right person for them, and that no matter
how much we love, we can't chain.
Ironically, my most vivid memory of this song is from the Tin Angel, several
years ago, sitting with the man who inadvertently taught me most of these
lessons, listening to Karin sing that selfsame intro, with him oblivious to
my silent tears as I sat behind him.
And yes, it _was_ like a bad movie.
Ysoie, your Drama Queen/Dr. Leo Buscaglia clone for the evening