A Better Place To Be by Harry Chapin
I am going to bet but this is probably the oldest song that I will end up using during this challenge. Harry Chapin was a very popular humanitarian singer/songwriter from the 70’s who my brother Michael introduced me to somewhere in the 80’s. Michael had moved to Florida, and this was one of the cassettes that he listened to regularly on his long drives back and forth for visits. When I started making road trips of my own, I quickly understood why. Chapin was a storyteller, and each song was an tale, sometimes funny, sometimes sad but always engrossing.
This one, for me, always leaned toward sad and over the years, as my life experiences accumulated, my comprehension of the depth of that sadness has just multiplied. There are three characters in this tale, and I have spent time as each of them over the years, and furthermore as I observe the world around me, I see that I am not alone in this. Recently I read a description of my zodiac sign (no I don’t usually pay attention to that but this was uncanny in its accurate description of me) which said among other things, “…It is no surprise that your purpose is to feel and to show sympathy. You know how dark and empty loneliness and desolation can feel…”. Maybe that’s why this song hits me like it does, it’s just a built in response. I don’t know about all that. It’s more likely that Chapin and was just a very perceptive observer of the human condition, and in this song, his observations just match my own perceptions and experiences. Whichever, it is a song I always come back to and remains one of my all time favorites.
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