08 September 2009

Love's Little Memorials

Yesterday, I was listening to live music from various friends and acquaintances, a delightful concert that featured about a dozen acts. So many of the songs were, of course, about love; love lost, love gained, love that could have been, and love that sits at the back of your throat as words you’ve never quite had the courage to utter. As the configuration of musicians and singers changed from song to to song, there were, at times, ex's collaborating. The unsung love song about relationships lost and realized in the real lives of the singers and musicians was at least as poignant as the lyrics we heard.

And as I’m watching this, two things occur to me.

One, we have war memorials to commemorate lives lost. Why not also have breakup memorials to commemorate loves lost? Why should the parks only mourn the dead? Why not the relationships lost and whole lives never lived? When someone turns away from love, something real is lost. And its worth mourning. Might it warrant a statue? Why not a park to commemorate lost loves?

And then a second thought occurs to me. We do commemorate lost love. I was sitting there listening to these love memorials. That is what so many songs are. No wonder we pay such close and frequent attention to songs. It’s not a statue, but on the other hand, nobody walks around the kitchen humming a statute.

If anyone ever asks you about the difference between a committee and a band, you tell them that committees commemorate war with statutes and bands commemorate love with songs. And nobody ever asks, Hey? What is that committee’s name?

3 comments:

Ben said...

This blog post has a special little place in my heart =)

It's absolutely true that there are memorials to loves lost and found and still held tightly in songs we hear all around us. I love that about so many songs.

Gypsy at Heart said...

What Ben said.

Allen said...

Ditto.