Balance

Do things ever ooze into your head and refuse to leave? For me, it often relates to folk music. There was quite a craze about it in my developing youth. I’m talking about real folk music, not the stuff we sometimes call it these days. As explained in a Library of Congress publication:

“Traditional ballads are narrative folksongs - simply put, they are folksongs that tell stories. They tell all kinds of stories, including histories, legends, fairy tales, animal fables, jokes, and tales of outlaws and star-crossed lovers. ("Ballad" is a term also used in the recording industry for slow, romantic songs, but these should not be confused with traditional or folk ballads.)”

These ballads moved from place to place, even from continent to continent. Sometimes wandering minstrels altered them to fit local traditions.

Anyway, there is a type of folk music referred to, if I remember right, as “recognition ballads.” The protagonist wanders off one day, or is impressed to sea, or lured away, or simply forgets about things as men still do. He’s gone for years and, upon return, his true love doesn’t recognize him. Nobody does. His true love may have married, may have killed herself from lovelornness, may have lost interest, may not believe him, or suffered from a lack of ardor. There are countless combinations permutations. Sometimes, he reveals the truth and the listener imagines what occurs after the denouement.

These were songs from olden times. I don’t recall hearing one in which the long-suffering true love welcomes the wanderer in and introduces him to her wife, Sally Ann. That would have spiced up the old minstrel’s life, eh?

These were also times before cameras or video phones. How the hell is a poor girl, whose true love left to go a’whoreing 20 years ago, supposed to remember how he looked.

It’s interesting to think about such anonymity. You could just disappear. Click off. Đi-đi mau Vamoose, Geh weg. Nobody would know a thing about you. Or care.

It’s a lot different now. For example. I was just thinking of a two-inch Forstner bit I need for a little project I’m doing for a friend. Having said that, by the time I visit social media again, I promise you that there will be a dozen ads for the bit on my computer screen.

I don’t think I could slip out and come back as a mysterious stranger. It seems that the universe demands balance. We give up our privacy but gain ease of spending money on things. We sleep in a warm room on a full stomach but worry about water damage each time it rains. We use individual motorized vehicle for even small journeys but our eyes sting, and the Earth melts from the pollution they cause. We can keep up with the news constantly, but we find it harder and more frustrating each day to know the truth. Here's an old Carter Family song of hope based on the recognition theme and performed by Doc Watson and family.

It’s pleasant to think I still can recognize my wife, and that she recognizes me when she wishes. Wait here while I go wake her up and find out for sure.