About six years ago my wife was diagnosed with cancer.
Previously she went to the doctor every six months for a check up and the usual blood tests. There was a time there when I went with her every time, but these days she goes alone, not without my support, but she goes alone.
Yesterday was one of those days. She was going to collect the results. I’m not normally superstitious but when Hanged Man comes to Fool I’m anybody’s Devil and I miss interpret things.
In my car, I’ve had playing for months an old Paul Kelly album called Deeper Water (for those of you who don’t know Paul Kelly, he is widely considered Australia’s greatest song writer). It was one of those albums that required a second listen and in my case a 510th listen, but I was finally turned on to what he was expressing.
So on Tuesday, winding my way up through Yang Ming Shan National Park whilst my wife was picking up her results, I heard these lyrics:
Deeper Water
On a crowded beach in a distant time
At the height of summer see a boy of five
At the water’s edge so nimble and free
Jumping over the ripples looking way out to sea
Now a man comes up from amoungst the throng
Takes the young boy’s hand and his hand is strong
And the child feels safe, yeah the child feels brave
As he’s carried in those arms up and over the waves
Deeper water, deeper water, deeper water, calling him on
Let’s move forward now and the child’s seventeen
With a girl in the back seat tugging at his jeans
And she knows what she wants, she guides with her hand
As a voice cries inside him - I’m a man, I’m a man!
Deeper water, deeper water, deeper water, calling him on
Now the man meets a woman unlike all the rest
He doesn’t know it yet but he’s out of his depth
And he thinks he can run, it’s amatter of pride
But he keeps coming back like a cork on the tide
Well the years hurry by and the woman loves the man
Then one night in the dark she grabs hold of his hand
Says ‘There, can you feel it kicking inside!’
And the man gets a shiver right up and down his spine
Deeper water, deeper water, deeper water, calling him on
So the clock moves around and the child is a joy
But Death doesn’t care just who it destroys
Now the woamn gets sick, thins down to the bone
She says ‘Where I’m going next, I’m going alone’
Deeper water, deeper water
On a distant beach lonely and wild
At a later time see a man and a child
And the man takes the child up into his arms
Takes her over the breakers
To where the water is calm
Deeper water, deeper water,
Deeper water, calling them on