you rolling river

Why are the saddest songs always about rivers?

Think about it. "Just remember the Red River Valley, and the one who has loved you so true." Audrey Hepburn cooing on the balcony: "Old dream maker, you heartbreaker." "River" by Joni Mitchell. "Watching the River Flow" by Dylan. Even Gertrude's river song in "Hamlet."

And, of course, "Shenandoah."

Why do rivers provide such rich, loamy song-writing soil? Well, we all know rivers are beautiful. Also, their mossy, shady banks provide an idyllic (pastoral) setting for laughing, loving, and longing. Most of all, rivers' elusiveness adds to their pathos. For rivers cannot be stopped. They rush on and on and on, like time, like our little lives, never pausing for breath or regret.

If you haven't heard the famous jazz pianist Keith Jarrett play Shenandoah on his album "The Melody, At Night With You," please find the album and give it as a listen. As a high school student, my dad introduced me to this song, and I used to listen to it over and over again. Jarrett's arrangement still breaks my heart today. From the very first few notes, one feels that this song's beginning was borne out of a painful "goodbye."

In "Shenandoah," in our relationships, in our days on earth, there is no "hello" without a "goodbye." Anyone who has paid any attention to the Way of Things knows that music and life possess rules and rhythm: Death comes, and Time marches forward. As we grow older, we learn to work and love within this world.

As I listen to Jarrett play piano, I hear and feel that he holds nothing back. He does what he can with the time he's been given, but this power is tempered by his unwillingness to get to the "goodbye." His chords become increasingly fumbled. He is resisting the river's swift and insistent currents. You can even hear his raspy humming, coming from the pit of his stomach, and you think, this man's instrument is an extension of himself. Truly.

But before we know it, the song fades away. The melody, at night, with you is whisked away, and dissolved in the river, just like the minutes of our lives. The piano whispers. The chords slow. I think he's begging for just a moment more.

Hold it dearly when you have it, hold it dearly when you have it. That's the lesson of these mournful river songs.