Heaven

Heaven

Is a place

A place where nothing

Nothing ever happens

How could it be so? What does it mean? You would think someone as much into lyrics as myself would make sense of them much faster... Sometimes it takes years for the bulb in my mind to light up and finally attach meaning to a line, a verse or even a whole song that I've loved the whole time, as is the case with this one from Talking Heads, Heaven. It's funny how it happened, this once.

It's the end of the semester. People are leaving again, some for good, though maybe not forever (often there's an honest intention to catch up later again somewhere, somehow), but essentially speaking, those who leave are pretty much out of your everyday life. There's a voice inside of your head that tells you : "It will never be the same again". The longer you live and move, the more it tends to happen, let alone if you're the Tick Collector, always on a quest for something. And it breaks your heart every time.

Everybody's trying

To get to the bar

The name of the bar

The bar is called Heaven

In the afternoon this song started playing in my head. It played for hours, the words and the melody jumping to my mouth every now and then, while I went about my business of the day, slightly curious about the reason for my brain to be so insistent. At some point it hit me: Vladi, one of my closest friends and musical collaborators, someone I was lucky to count on all through these crazy five years, was leaving Dalian in two days. For good this time.

The band in Heaven

They play my favorite song

Play it one more time

Play it all night long

Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens, where nothing ever changes, where the band is playing your favourite song back to back, where people don't move on and leave. I finally made sense of the song. Good for me!

Of course, it is not true. It's unhealthy to get stuck and avoid change, I don't wish that for myself or for any of my friends. It's better to let them walk away with a piece of your heart in their pocket hoping they will keep it safe, and just keep rolling yourself with a clear goal in mind: to make the current period the best of your life, as it has always been so far. But still... you come to a certain age feeling that your heart is missing too many little pieces!

At any rate, it's a great song. And it is always great people that leave great voids behind them. It has been a privilege, Vladi. Godspeed, my friend.