Memories and Music

Many mornings I wake up with music playing in my head, something that’s been kind of normal for me for decades. I love music, and I guess when the house is quiet, my brain starts playing songs while I sleep.

This week I woke up to discover I was hearing a song from the musical, “HMS Pinafore” which I sang back in junior high school so many decades ago. Haven’t heard the musical in all these years, so I was startled to be hearing this selection! But as I thought about it, maybe my mind was connecting the song with our current political situation.

The song was called “When I Was a Lad” and it recounts a man’s climb up the ladder of status in his life. The verse that was running through my mind was this one:

I grew so rich that I was sent
By a pocket borough into Parliament.
I always voted at my party’s call,
And I never thought of thinking for myself at all.
(He never thought of thinking for himself at all.)
I thought so little, they rewarded me
By making me the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!
(He thought so little, they rewarded he
By making him the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!)

Odd the ways the mind works…