Tuesday, January 8, 2013

All The Lonely People

This morning on the way to work I was stuck at a red light here in Paso Robles, CA, waiting to make a left-hand turn. As I sat in my car I watched people making a left-hand turn across my face pass by me and I could see directly into their faces as each car passed. Each car had only the driver and I was struck by both their distinctive individuality and the uniformity of their solitude and the distant and disconnected appearance of their visage. They seemed not happy and not rooted in the moment and place they were in but were functioning like mindless worker drones following their prescribed assignments in a trudging sort of fashion not unlike scenes in cinematic dystopias portraying workers in drab clothing walking in unison en route to their work. This observation caused me to both ponder the melancholy of its implications and also caused to enter into my thoughts loud and clear the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby to which I have included a music player below. Below the music player are the lyrics. 


Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near
Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved

All the lonely people (Ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people (Ah, look at all the lonely people)
Where do they all belong?

Source: AZLyrics.com

1 comment:

  1. Ah Kim, I've seen that parade at intersections throughout town. Drivers leaning left or right depending on the direction they cross the intersection. Some holding their iPhones in front of their faces ready to proclaim to an arresting officer they are 'hands-free'. And then one who made me laugh so loud, she must have been driving with her knees in the two lane left-hander onto 101-South - as she passed before me she was grasping a 2 quart, red tupperware bowl with her thumbs and shoveling breakfast in a large spoon from bowl to mouth, AMAZING! Pure LeMans talent that girl, hope she made it to work, or the gym, or...

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