Sweet Thing

This song has become sort of my theme song. Started when I was driving to Cincinnati, and since then, this song and “Warm Love” and “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven when You Smile)” — 2 of Patti’s kids’ favorites — have been on sort of a 3-song rotation on the CD player in my car.

But this one, this one, is the one I am claiming.

Sweet Thing

And I will stroll the merry way
And jump the hedges first
And I will drink the clear
Clean water for to quench my thirst
And I shall watch the ferry boats
And they’ll get high
On a bluer ocean
Against tomorrow’s sky
And I will never grow so old again
And I will walk and talk
In gardens all wet with rain.

Oh, whoa, sweet thing, sweet thing
Hey, yeah, sweet thing
My, my, my, my, my, my sweet thing

And I shall drive my chariot
Down your streets and cry
“Hey, it’s me, I’m dynamite
And I don’t know why”
And you shall take me strongly
In your arms again
And I will not remember
That I ever felt the pain
We shall walk and talk
In gardens all misty wet, all misty wet with rain
And I will never, never, never
Grow so old again.

Oh, oh, whoa, sweet thing, yeah
Oh, oh, whoa, you sweet thing, you sweet thing
My, my, my, my, my, my, my

And I will raise my hand up
Into the nighttime sky
And count the star
That’s shining in your eye
Just to dig it all and not to wonder
That’s just fine
And I’ll be satisfied
Not to read in-between the lines
And I will walk and talk
In gardens all wet with rain
And I will never, ever, ever, ever
Grow so old again.

Oh, whoa, sweet thing
Oh, whoa, whoa, sugar baby
Oh, whoa, sweet thing
Sugar baby, sugar baby, sugar baby
With your champagne eyes
And your saint-like smile ...

— Van Morrison

On a bluer ocean
Against tomorrow’s sky ...



Yeah. My second sailing trip, ever, was on the Atlantic Ocean. On a sunset cruise hosted by Captain Bob. On the next-to-last day of 2004. Which, the more I think about it, was one of the best years ever.

One of the things I managed to write while I was actually in Fla. (I actually wrote it in my reporter’s notebook, in fact!) was a list titled “What I Did in 2004.” This was inspired by a topic thread over in The Orchard — a thread I did not contribute to, actually, because 2004 was not close enough to being finished for me to do so.

Anyhoo, I was really going to town on this list and was already up to 12 things — most of it work- or sports-related stuff; I had not even gotten to the really good stuff yet! — and then I suddenly realized I was going to end up with, like, 50 or 60 things, or maybe more, and that not one of them would have really mattered to me if not for the first 2 items on my list:

1. Finally totally truly accepted forgiveness from someone I had hurt.

2. Forgave myself.

The rest of the list? Well, most of it has been covered somewhere in the archives, anyway ... with the first part of the year included here. So no need for me to retype it all, really.