The Lakes of Canada

I have been listening to this song today, over and over again. You can listen to it here if you'd like. I am not a fisherman, or a boater, so I have no idea really what this song is communicating, but I believe in sudden joy that darts like a fish, a dazzling, darting light in murky darkness. Hell, I've experienced it today getting ready to go to a funeral home. So for those of you who believe in such things, you might like this song. Today, of all days, it is really precious to me.

Look for me another day
I feel that I could change
I feel that I could change

There's a sudden joy that's like
a fish, a moving light;
I thought I saw it
rowing on the lakes of Canada

Oh laughing man
what have you won?
don't tell me what cannot be done.
my little mouth, my winter lungs
don't tell me what cannot be done
cannot be done

Walking in the cirlce of a flashlight
someone starts to sing, to join in
Talk of loneliness in quiet voices
I am shy but you can reach me
rowing on the lakes of Canada
rowing on the lakes of Canada

Oh laughing man
what have you won?
don't tell me what cannot be done
my little mouth, my winter lungs
don't tell me what cannot be done
cannot be done

So look for me another time,
give me another day
I feel that I could change
So look for me another time
give me another day.
I feel that I could change
rowing on the lakes of Canada
rowing on the lakes of Canada
rowing on the lakes of Canada
rowing on the lakes of Canada
-- The Innocence Mission, "The Lakes of Canada"

"I'm in awe of big songs, national anthems, rock opera, the Broadway musical. But what I always come back to, after the din and drum roll, is the small song that makes careful observations about everyday life. This is what makes the music by The Innocence Mission so moving and profound. 'Lakes of Canada' creates an environment both terrifying and familiar using sensory language: incandescent bulbs and rowboats are made palpable by careful rhythms, unobtrusive rhyme schemes, and specificity of language. What is so remarkable about Karen Peris' lyrics are the economy of words, concrete nouns - fish, flashlight, laughing man - which come to life with melodies that dance around the scale like sea creatures. Panic and joy, a terrible sense of awe, the dark indentations of memory all come together at once, accompanied by the joyful strum of an acoustic guitar. This is a song in which everyday objects begin to have tremendous meaning."
-- Sufjan Stevens, on "The Lakes of Canada"