Graceland

I have never understood what Paul Simon’s Graceland was talking about. As I was listening to it today, it hit me that it might relate to what I have been thinking about lately: what makes a person resilient? Here are a few of the lines that I always questioned how they related to Graceland.

“She comes back to tell me she’s gone
As if I didn’t know that
As if I didn’t know my own bed
As if I’d never noticed
The way she brushed her hair from her forehead
And she said losing love
Is like a window in your heart
Everybody sees you’re blown apart
Everybody sees the wind blow…
There is a girl in New York City
Who calls herself the human trampoline
And sometimes when I’m falling, flying
Or tumbling in turmoil I say
Oh, so this is what she means
She means we’re bouncing into Graceland…
And I may be obliged to defend
Every love, every ending
Or maybe there’s no obligations now
Maybe I’ve a reason to believe
We all will be received
In Graceland”

1. He explains the feelings of the loss from love, and the idea that everyone sees that you are going through a trial.
2. He talks about tumbling in turmoil and thinking that is what it feels like to be a human trampoline.
3. He decides that there is no obligation to defend or explain every ending.

While I do not think this totally is the short answer with what I have been thinking about with resilience, I think he brings up a good point. We should all have a goal of going to Graceland. The true one, not in Memphis, Tennessee, but where God is in Heaven. We are all going to go through trials, but we have some where to look forward to going. If we hang on and do what God wants us to do, then “I have reason to believe we all will be received in Graceland”.

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:6-9

Next week I will be posting a three part series on my thoughts this week on resilience. I would love your input!
Kathy