If you are of a certain age and mindset, then you likely have a (possibly vague) recollection of the first time you heard the Talking Heads. I’ll admit they were not so high up on my radar until Remain in Light came out, and one song in particular had resonance then, and still does in my life: Once in a Lifetime.
It’s pondering of the existential aspects of life—the meanings and definition of success and satisfaction—were, in some ways, not terribly relevant to a 17 year old with more focus on term papers and parties than attaining a meaningful life. I had yet to be buffeted significantly by the arbitrariness of bureaucracy, the tedium of work you don’t love, the demands of a family, and yes—the joy, too, of love, responsibility, satisfaction in a job well done.
Yet the song remains a lodestar for me, and listening to it often supplies an opportunity to reflect—or genuflect—on the successes I have had, the hard knocks I have endured, the love and support I receive. In performing this relatively unscientific inventory of my time on earth, as a citizen of Brookline, Massachusetts, USA, North America, Earth—as Stephen Dedalus might say—I find the glass half full.
That’s how I got here—and I am thankful.
