Tuesday Tunes: Bob Seger’s “Against The Wind”

Editor’s Note: Song lyrics denoted in bold italics.

Time is such a fleeting thing. Blink once and it’s gone forever. We can’t recapture the past, as inviting as that may be, but that certainly doesn’t keep us from thinking of those weighty matters sometimes.

Maybe I’m thinking more about this topic more than ever because today is my mom‘s 60th birthday — more on that in a bit. These sorts of birthdays just naturally seem to lend themselves to a moment of pause, a time to take stock, if you will. And, really, nothing says “it’s time to take stock of your life” like one of my favorite singers…

Bob Seger’s “Against The Wind”
From Against The Wind

I first “got” this song after I watched Forrest Gump when I was a teen. Something about Tom Hanks running — and running and running — was just so symbolic to me.

And I remember what she said to me
How she swore that it never would end
I remember how she held me oh so tight
Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then

Life moves at a snail’s pace when we’re young. We feel so helpless about it all and can’t wait until we’re older. Then, time will surely speed up. We’re certain of it. So we wait. And wait. And — you guessed it! — wait. But something happens during all that waiting, something we may not even be aware of as it’s happening right before our very eyes.

And the years rolled slowly past
And I found myself alone
Surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends
I found myself further and further from my home
And I guess I lost my way
There were oh so many roads
I was living to run and running to live

Time marches on. The years go by. People grow up. Things change, even if we don’t want them to, even if we rally against it with every fiber of our being. It’s something that we can’t stop, and at that moment we realize that? Ironically, the whole world seems to stop moving. We’re scared and feel this intense urge to grasp at the strings of time as if it they were the strings of balloons that we could hold down forever.

Moving eight miles a minute for months at a time
Breaking all of the rules that would bend
I began to find myself searchin’
Searchin’ for shelter again and again
Against the wind

If we’re being honest with ourselves, I don’t think any of us know exactly what we’re doing. This big thing called life is just one giant, utterly complete mystery.

We may never figure it out, but I do suspect that we can all agree on one thing: We’re all just trying to make it, one step at a time, one foot in front of the other. After all, we’re just trying to brace ourselves against this fierce wind — determined to be strong and not let it knock us down without a fight… xoxo