Keepsake: Things for times of forgetting

Oftentimes, the most important insights come in the most prosaic moments.?

Driving home from the DMV in the late afternoon yesterday, just as evening was beginning to descend the sky ahead was so beautiful that I pulled over and took several photos. I plan to use them as a keepsake to remind me of the value of life in the days ahead — when I will surely have forgotten.?

Keepsake

How is it that the clouds still hang in the sky’s thin air,

or that the sun still makes its way up and down the horizon??

Or that the branches of the trees still reach upwards to receive their light?

How is it that we get lost in the momentary,?

lost in the minutiae of each day??

And how is it that we’ve lost sight of the vastness, the ineffability of God??

A God who despite weeping oceans upon oceans of Tears,?

continues to sustain our?

most important,?

most beautiful,?

and most fearsome?

gift—

our freedom to choose between life and its opposite.

"Does It Matter?" is the 6th track off?Gematria, my second Island Records, released back in 1985. The track was cut live in a basement studio in my hometown of Saint Louis Park, Minnesota in late 1984. In addition to me on lead vocals and guitar, you’ll find my good friend, Andy Kamman on drums, Al Wolovitch on fretless bass, Jeff Victor on keyboards and background vocals, and Eric Moen on guitar and background vocals. I can’t believe we recorded this 32 years ago.

The answer proposed by the song’s title is of course, a resounding yes. It all matters, even the thing we think don’t concern us at all.

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