Alrighty...been awhile!
Now I am aware that I have quoted the genius that is the Indigo Girls before and guess what? Gonna do it again folks. In fact, I am going to discuss the same quote that I have used in the past and why I think it could possibly be my favorite song lyric ever.
Looking back it is no surprise to me that the last time I used this song lyric was to help describe a really simple, wonderful day. About a year ago I had the day off and I decided on a whim to take my dog with me for a ride to get some Dunkin' Donuts coffee. The coffee ended up being free and for some reason this shaped the rest of my day. The fact that DD was hooking me up made me decide that rather than head home I should see where the day would take me.
You can see the rest of that day in a previous blog. Back to the now.
I have this problem in my car you see. My husband calls it "the place where cd's go to die" and sadly, it is true. I try! I really do but inevitably my cd's end up on the floor scratched, sometimes even cracked, and in general, not the most "playable". Over time I have lost many a cd to this "problem", including a few Indigo Girls cd's, cause let's be real...what could be better than driving along, window down, listening and singing along with the Girls. So the other day when I had a chance to purchase an IG cd for pretty cheap I jumped at it. I bought Swamp Ophelia for what feels like at least the third time...oh well. It has some incredible songs on it including "Power of Two", "Dead Man's Hill", "The Wood Song", and "Mystery". Which brings us to our lyric.
Now I don't pretend to know what Emily and Amy were thinking about when they wrote "Mystery", I can only tell you what it means to me and I'm not even gonna do that. I have this very strong belief that everyone loves the Indigo Girls for their own reasons. Everyone has a Ghost of their own and everyone in some way or another believes that Love Will Come To You and I choose not to ruin how someone feels about a particular song. Just one line...that's all we're discussing.

"I could go crazy on a night like tonight when summer's beginning to give up her fight..."

Again, I don't pretend to know what this lyric means to the brilliant women who wrote it, I only know how it makes me feel. It can make me smile on the cloudiest of days, it can make my heart swell so much that I cannot contain my voice and I am forced to sing along and the sense memory of an evening like they describe can send me back centuries. It helps that fall is my favorite season but really, who doesn't know that kind of night? "When summer's beginning to give up her fight". Who doesn't know what that feels like? It's not even a change in weather. It's a shift, a tiny breeze and you realize that summer is over. It smacks you in the face one day and you pull out your favorite fleece pullover and cuddly jeans. A subtle change and a death has happened along with a rebirth.
Some people see that day as sad. Here comes the cold, back to school, no more long days in the sun.
I've never thought that way. I always saw that day that summer starts giving up her fight as a new possibility. A new season, chance to cuddle, a new school year, reinvention, and long nights by the bonfire.
I'm not sure why I feel so strongly about this for god's sake it's just a song. I guess when music and words join together so perfectly I see it as a little bit of magic.
And every fall without fail since I first heard that song, the day will come, the wind will shift just so and I will smile and quietly say within myself..."Look at that, here it is...summer's beginning to give up her fight".