Eight years old with flour sack cape
Tied all around his neck
He climbed up on the garage
Figurin’ what the heck
He screwed his courage up so tight
The whole thing come unwound
He got a runnin’ start and bless his heart
He headed for the ground…

Until Jamie wrote his guest post a few weeks back, it never fully occurred to me that my chosen path in life has been anything other than (slightly left of) normal. It didn’t really cross my mind that, as Jamie put it, that I was working without a net. I was honestly under the impression that, at least at the time I was making them, I was making pretty sensible decisions. That being said, most of them were made under the influence of something.

Now he’s all grown up with a flour sack cape
Tied all around his dreams
He’s full of piss and vinegar
He’s bustin’ at the seams
He licked his finger and checked the wind
It’s gonna be do or die
He wasn’t scared of nothin’, Boys
He was pretty sure he could fly

I’m not much for religion, at least the variety that gets practiced inside a church. But I’ve come to believe, in a typically convoluted manner, that something or someone wiser than me is actually running the show. As a scientist, I always look for empirical evidence to support a belief. In this case, I’ve got loads. The fact that I’m happy and healthy and running free in the Southern Hemisphere rather than in a jail or some other institution or dead is ample proof of the existence of a power greater than myself.

Old and gray with a flour sack cape
Tied all around his head
He’s still jumpin’ off the garage
And will be till he’s dead
All these years the people said
He’s actin’ like a kid
He did not know he could not fly
So he did…

And Boy Z. Some of you know that Boy Z’s birthday was a very special day for me before he was born. His arrival on that day just reaffirms the previous paragraph for me. Boy Z’s got some pretty dubious genetic gifts coming his way beyond male pattern baldness and just general funny looking-ness. Some days that worries me. But then I realize that if I made it, despite repeatedly jumping off the garage with nothing but a bit of burlap around my neck (metaphorically speaking) then there’s no reason that Boy Z won’t make it as well. I couldn’t do anything to change his choice of which path to take in life anyway. He’s going to reach an age at which I’m going to have very little influence on his choices – I’m certainly not going to be able to dress him up in matching shoes and caps for too long, for example. He’s going to do what he’s going to do and he’s going to be what he’s going to be. If I could give Boy Z a bit of advice, I would use these words, slightly modified, from Guy Clark:

Be one of those who knows that life
Is just a leap of faith
Spread your arms and hold your breath
And always trust your cape

———————–

This version of Guy Clarke’s “The Cape” comes from a live album done with Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt called “Together at the Bluebird Cafe”. If you’re a fan of any of these musicians then this album is an absolute must. Buy it at Steve Earle - Together At the Bluebird Café.

 
icon for podpress  Guy Clark - "The Cape" [3:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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