Monday, August 01, 2005

Happy Birthday, Jerry...

" All the things I planned to do
I only did halfway
Tomorrow will be Sunday born of rainy Saturdays
There's some satisfaction in the San Francisco rain
No matter what comes down
The mission always looks the same"-" Mission In The Rain"- Robert Hunter

One of my favorite Garcia tunes, it is somehow both depressing and uplifting at the same time- much the same as August has been since 1995- Jerry was born on August 1st, 1942, and died on August 9th, 1995. It presents a bit of a quandary to those of us who choose to dwell on these sorts of things- which to dwell on ? Which to blather on about ? Celebrate the birthday ? Mourn the death ? You know what, I like the sound of my own typing enough that I do believe I will do both- so you can skip this if you want, and if it doesn't interest you, then next Tuesday will probably be of little interest as well.
I could talk about Garcia and the Grateful Dead for days and days, and those of you who know me, know that I have. I know that some think that my fandom(perhaps bordering on obsession) is a bit much- in fact, when I told one of my dearest friends that I had been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, he told me that I was taking this Garcia thing a bit too far- but anyway, I don't really know how to explain it- any time I try, it gets horribly sappy and ridiculous- I really do think that this band and this man changed my life, and changed it for the better- it's somewhere that I can feel I belong(most of the time anyway-the self-esteem"issues" as my wife calls them, run pretty deep)that being myself is okay(see, there's the sappy ridiculousness-but I can't help it)- the music always makes me smile- even when it's making me sad- I love it, what can I say ?
So happy birthday Jerry. Hope you get to play with Pig Pen and Brent today.

2 comments:

Anne said...

hey there
i can relate!
this was a nice post to find.

Paticus said...

Thank you. It's certainly nice to be found !