Lone Tree No. 2
Mary Travers died yesterday at the age of 72 of leukemia. On Sunday the 25th anniversary of the death of singer-songwriter Steve Goodman is observed. Both of these events caused me to be quite sad, even to the verge of being weepy during parts of the day yesterday. These people, among others, influenced my growth in my late teens and twenties, some 40 or more years ago.
The passing of Mary Travers sent me coursing through old files looking for an image of Puff the Magic Dragon I shot some 15 years ago while visiting Hanalei Bay on the island of Kaua’i with my wife. It was a true revelation that such a place actually existed and that there was a rock formation that resembled the dragon of the song. I couldn’t find the image but it is etched in my mind as I write this.
Steve Goodman wrote songs about about my home town of Chicago including the very best baseball song ever written, Go Cubs Go. Steve was a regular at the Earl of Old Town, a pup I frequented back in the day. I knew him well enough to say hello, not really as a close friend, but he never failed to say hi when I was in the audience listening to him belt out one of his great tunes.
Mary Travers died too young as did Steve Goodman. They both continue to affect the existential time of my lived experience. I am able to respond to them through their music even though they are no longer able to reciprocate. I can only find them in historical time, the one way place from which there is no return. They live in memories having been significant influences on my life and the lives of thousands more.
I find the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson appropriate at the moment. The following two stanzas come from In Memoriam A.H.H.
I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.
But who shall so forecast the years
And find in loss a gain to match?
Or reach a hand thro’ time to catch
The far-off interest of tears?
The Lone Tree No. 2 by Roger Passman, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
