Song 11 of 20
Song 11 of 20
Embedded Files
Their children are grown and no longer require the daily attention that once organized the couple's life. The house has become quieter, and husband and wife begin talking about what they might do with the years ahead. They pull out maps, discuss places they have never seen and begin imagining a trip together. For the first time in a long while, they can make plans primarily for themselves.
Red taillights vanish down the driveThe old house settles, still aliveI stack the dishes, two by twoYou fold the corners square and trueYou lift the map beside your chairAnd trace the blue coast printed thereYou tap one harbor with a smile“We ought to stay there for a while.”
The kitchen walls fall far behindA thousand miles roll through my mind
We’ll take the longer way out westAnd let the miles suggest the restWe’ll pour our Tuesday coffee lateNo clock can call us out by eightYou navigate; I choose the tuneWe’ll trade the sunset for the moonTwo words can take us farther stillAcross the miles: “We will. We will.”
You choose a room above the bayWhere market music starts the dayI say three weeks; you answer, “Two...”The dog believes he married you.”We mark the date and make a startEach small deposit plays its partThe paper makes the distance smallTill pinpricks turn to waterfalls
Salt wind already lifts your hairI almost feel us standing there
We’ll take the longer way out westAnd let the miles suggest the restWe’ll pour our Tuesday coffee lateNo clock can call us out by eightYou navigate; I choose the tuneWe’ll trade the sunset for the moonTwo words can take us farther stillAcross the miles: “We will. We will.”
At eighty, you’ll read every signAnd say your eyesight still beats mineOur stubborn knees will slow the climbWe’ll stop to kiss and blame the timeYou’ll raise the heat; I’ll crack the paneThen close it when you use my nameYour laughter travels down the hallI’ll follow, smiling, at its call
We’ll take the longer way out westWith years to wander, room to restWe’ll hear our grandson’s name ring clearAnd rattle rafters when we cheerYou navigate; I choose the tuneWe’ll reach the coastline late in JuneTwo words can take us farther stillAnd every morning says, “We will.”
Tomorrow settles on the chairBlue coastline waiting, printed there
The kitchen walls fall far behindA thousand miles roll through my mind
We’ll take the longer way out westAnd let the miles suggest the restWe’ll pour our Tuesday coffee lateNo clock can call us out by eightYou navigate; I choose the tuneWe’ll trade the sunset for the moonTwo words can take us farther stillAcross the miles: “We will. We will.”
You choose a room above the bayWhere market music starts the dayI say three weeks; you answer, “Two...”The dog believes he married you.”We mark the date and make a startEach small deposit plays its partThe paper makes the distance smallTill pinpricks turn to waterfalls
Salt wind already lifts your hairI almost feel us standing there
We’ll take the longer way out westAnd let the miles suggest the restWe’ll pour our Tuesday coffee lateNo clock can call us out by eightYou navigate; I choose the tuneWe’ll trade the sunset for the moonTwo words can take us farther stillAcross the miles: “We will. We will.”
At eighty, you’ll read every signAnd say your eyesight still beats mineOur stubborn knees will slow the climbWe’ll stop to kiss and blame the timeYou’ll raise the heat; I’ll crack the paneThen close it when you use my nameYour laughter travels down the hallI’ll follow, smiling, at its call
We’ll take the longer way out westWith years to wander, room to restWe’ll hear our grandson’s name ring clearAnd rattle rafters when we cheerYou navigate; I choose the tuneWe’ll reach the coastline late in JuneTwo words can take us farther stillAnd every morning says, “We will.”
Tomorrow settles on the chairBlue coastline waiting, printed there
Behind The Song
Behind The Song
The Long Way West is about something that does not yet exist but can nevertheless possess real emotional value: the future.
Human beings live partly in anticipation.
We save money for a trip. We imagine grandchildren older than they are today. We picture retirement mornings, future anniversaries, unfinished projects and ourselves aging beside someone we love.
None of these events has happened.
Yet they influence present choices.
The future therefore enters the marriage long before it arrives.
After decades of successfully building together, husband and wife naturally assume that they will continue doing so. This is not childish immortality. They know that bodies age and life is finite.
But they also have evidence.
They built yesterday.
They are together today.
So they project themselves into tomorrow.
The phrase “we will” becomes one of the album's most important pieces of language.
It contains confidence, partnership and joint authorship.
And notice what kind of future they imagine. It is not endless luxury or dramatic achievement.
Much of what they want is more ordinary life.
Coffee without a work clock. A road with time to wander. Familiar arguments about temperature. Family milestones. Kissing with older bodies. Hearing the other's laughter down another hallway.
That makes the future believable enough to become emotionally real.
This song therefore performs crucial work for what comes later.
Before a future can be lost, we must possess it in imagination.
But The Long Way West itself knows nothing about that.
The map is still open.
The road is still ahead.
And two words feel completely natural:
We will.
The Takeaway
The Takeaway
We live partly in the future long before we arrive there. The journey not yet taken, the older spouse we expect beside us, the grandchildren at another age and the mornings we assume are ahead already influence what we save, build and hope for today. The answer is neither to distrust tomorrow nor sacrifice today to it, but to build for the future while remembering that only the present can actually be lived.
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