"Nobody's Crying"

No matter where I am when I hear this Patty Griffin song - most recently working on a research paper at my creaky kitchen table with my music on shuffle and the sunset occupying my peripheral vision - there are words in the later part of this song that cause a bodily reply.

May you dream you are dreaming in a warm soft bed
May the voices inside you that fill you with dread
Make the sound of thousands of angels instead
Tonight where you might be laying your head

This verse of blessing calls on me to hope for those who have not been particularly good to me. In some instances, I may even call these people "my enemies." Though they aren't necessarily sword-swinging enemies, they have slashed at some vulnerable places and left me to do some bandaging.

As the music shifts towards this benediction, I find myself closing my eyes, picturing those little shits who did some damage, and holding my hands out for mercy: for them and for me. I know that behind these flashes-of-faces in my imagination there are sad reasons for the sad things people do to other people. Sadly.

Patty sings of the wishing and the working out of forgiveness; I so often need other people's words and wishes in matters of remission.

Patty Griffin and Doug Lancio at Edmonton Folk Festival.


Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Shawn Colvin at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Song: No Bad News.