Night of the Fishies

Last Tuesday I had dinner at Macalester College with three graduating seniors. I was participating in an alumni/student affair where the students (that would be them) could meet and eat with an alumni in their field of interest (that would be me). I offered them typical "David" advice, incomprehensible, irrational and totally unusable. Their questions ranged from "What do you do?" to "Do you stay in touch with your classmates from Mac?" I was a bit rattled being back on campus. The place was the same only the names and faces were different. Less colored hair and more body piercing. A lesson I've often learned is don't try to mix periods from your life. It don't work. With some unfinished business still occupying brain space, it was rather like opening a tomb. None of which was of any interest to any of the students (or you). All in all an odd experience. When I got home I listened to Bob Dylan's Day of the Locusts, a song about Bob's experience in accepting an honorary degree from Princeton University. So it was in that spirit that the following poured out of me as I sat down to write about my evening:

Walking down that path of eternal forgiveness. A long long journey, a trip after I fell. Give in, give up, get up and go on. The echoing sound of a ringing bell. Grace the fishy swam, off in the distance. Grace the fishy swam, off in the sea. Grace the fishy swam, in his polluted fish bowl. Grace the fishy swam, and he was swimming for me.

I walked past the music department, and heard a note of sadness. I walked past the geography department, history too. Passed the past of once forgotten places. The scent of a jean jacket that I once knew. Grace the fishy swam, off in the distance. Grace the fishy swam, off in the sea. Grace the fishy swam, in his polluted fish bowl. Grace the fishy swam, and he was swimming for me.

I watched for the traffic before I crossed Grand Avenue. The cold metal doors of Kagin opened wide. The lights of the campus, were beginning to wake up. The shadows of time stood right by my side. Grace the fishy swam, off in the distance. Grace the fishy swam, off in the sea. Grace the fishy swam, in her polluted fish bowl. Grace the fishy swam, and she was swimming for me.

I thought someone said they saw a sellout. I was at my alma mater, where I returned my degree. In a familiar place with all those strange faces. I didn't know what they could want from me. Grace the fishy swam, off in the distance. Grace the fishy swam, off in the sea. Grace the fishy swam, in his polluted fish bowl. Grace the fishy swam, and he was swimming for me.

Words of advice was what was expected. A drip of wisdom that never left my mind. The clinking of sounds, echoed and haunted. Separated from one who has been so kind. Grace the fishy swam, off in the distance. Grace the fishy swam, off in the sea. Grace the fishy swam, in her polluted fish bowl. Grace the fishy swam, and she was swimming for me.

Walking down that path of eternal forgiveness. A long long journey, a trip after I fell. Give in, give up, get up and go on. The echoing sound of a ringing bell. Grace the fishy swam, off in the distance. Grace the fishy swam, off in the sea. Grace the fishy swam, in his polluted fish bowl. Grace the fishy swam, and he was swimming for me.

Swimming for me. Yeah swimming for me...