RIP - Clyde Foresberg [Take 5]

It's been almost three week since you passed away, Clyde.

I'm still working on my eulogy for you, which is (I know) really for me. Still, I ask your permission to indulge me.

Did you ever get the name of a song or a line in some lyrics wrong? Who could ever say no to that question?  It's part of being human, yes? Making mistakes.

The night I learned of your passing my son and I listened to a piece of jazz you recorded with others. I told David it was called "Take 5" but it was actually called "So what."

I don't know where I am going with this. I just needed to sit down and process the evening, and a train of seemingly unconnected thoughts began to move through my mind, and you seemed to be on that journey with me.

No sign of the flood inside from the outside.

There was a flood in my home tonight. No, not another metaphorical one - an actual one. The drain hose for my washing machine became dislodged. I'm not sure how long it was pumping soapy water outside of its designated zone, but long enough to eventually require all household residents to be called in to help with clean up.

I haven't figured out the extent of the damage yet, and it may require a call to my home insurance company, but for now the major puddles have been mopped up and it's time for a little rest.

I was thinking of a song while we cleaned. I didn't convince my cleaning crew that it would be more fun to work if we turned on some music, so I just ran the lyrics in my mind.

They went, "Anyone can build an ark, organize the wood and stone, fill it with a hundred things, rule it all and be the king. Da dum, dee dum, dee dum, de dum ... Well that's where you belong."

In break now, I try to the the song to learn more of the lyrics, and discover I got quite a few of the words wrong. Here's a link to the song writer, Ben Abraham, playing the song on the piano and singing along. Here's a link the the lyrics.

So, apparently the song initially speaks to building a home not an ark. I wonder how I heard ark?!! And I remember thinking, interesting, a bold statement, lets see where he's going with this. I remember thinking I couldn't build an ark (the same holds true for a house), but maybe Clyde could. So, there you go.

The next part about filling it with a hundred things. Okay, I got that part covered. As I was cleaning up water tonight, I feel I moved around at least a 100 things that got a splash or more of water.

"Rule it all? Be the king?" I do give that a go every now and then, but it's not my forte, and philosophically I do prefer the notion of a collective. I liked thinking about that pull, though, to be the ruler, the one who gets to make all the decisions, the king of the dock as it were.

The next line, the real line, says, "We all need a place to lay our head when days are long." That beautiful line makes me feel a little sleepy, giving me permission to rest, accept the need.

And in that note, I have that second story to tell you, and it fits here, but I am just not quite ready yet.

I'm gonna stop here for now. If there is an after life, I hope you do give the song a listen. In case there isn't, I will enjoy a listen for both of us. There are some beautiful images about defining home. I think you had many. You have one in my heart for when you come to visit me, in memory or a day dream train ride, or even when I sit down just to "take five."