a peak at life, its possibilities, problems, and pursuits

Dawes is one of my favorite folk rock bands. Heck, they are one of my favorite bands, period. I love their sound, sure, but mostly I love their vibe. The songs are not formulaic ditties designed to hit the charts. These guys are storytellers.

I like stories and their tellers.

When My Time Comes is a single from Dawes’ 2009 debut album North Hills. Band leader and songwriter Taylor Dawes Goldsmith explained the song to songfacts.com this way:

North Hills is the debut album from Dawes, a California folk-rock band made up of members from the defunct post-punk act Simon Dawes. One of them is frontman Taylor Goldsmith, whose middle name, Dawes, inspired both bands’ monikers. After the breakup of his first group, the singer-songwriter wrestled with the idea of whether he wanted to continue a career in music and what the path would look like. Those anxieties are present in “When My Time Comes,” which ponders an uncertain future. The anthem immediately resonated with fans and became one of their most popular songs.

“That song was about anticipation of what might be possible for my life and for our band,” Goldsmith told Songfacts in a 2024 interview. “And despite being a little older now, it still resonates for me, especially when a room full of people scream it back to me.”

Without further delay, I will share the lyrics of the amazing anthem, When My Time Comes:

There were moments of dreams I was offered to save
I live less like a workhorse, more like a slave
I thought that one quick moment that was noble or brave
Would be worth the most of my life.

So I pointed my fingers, and shouted a few quotes I knew
As if something that's written should be taken as true
But every path I have taken and conclusion I drew
Would put truth back under the knife.

And now the only piece of advice that continues to help:
Is anyone that's making anything new only breaks something else.

When my time comes,
Ohhhhh, oh oh oh.
When my times comes,
Ohhhhh, oh oh oh.

So I took what I wanted and put it out of my reach
I wanted to pay for my successes with all my defeats,
And if heaven was all that was promised to me
Why don't I pray for death?
And now it seems like the unraveling has started too soon,
Now I'm sleeping in hallways and I'm drinking perfume
And I'm speaking to mirrors and I'm howling at moons
While the worse and the worse that it gets.

Oh you can judge all the world on the sparkle that you think it lacks.
Yes you can stare into the abyss, but it's staring right back.

When my time comes,
Ohhhhh, oh oh oh.
When my time comes,
Ohhhhh, oh oh oh.

The Main Event

“I thought that one quick moment that was noble or brave would be worth the most of my life.”

For some, that one shining moment was worth the rest of their lives. I am watching the documentary Churchill at War. He was a man of unmatched ability and undeniable fortitude, a man born to save the world from the ruin Nazism and Fascism would have brought it. As nation after nation fell to the advance of the Nazis, and while the United States delayed entry into the conflict, Churchill was the one man strong enough, brave enough, and stubborn enough to lead his island country to stand up to and stop Hitler.

For most of us, one moment hardly defines our lives. So many wait, pray, work, and scheme to get their 15 minutes in the sun, only to have them, watch them pass, and then sink into bitterness, disappointment, and regret.

You think your time will come. Then it does. Or it doesn’t. Now, what? If you are going to thrive in that shining moment and rise to the occasion when the occasion comes, you will need to make the most of all the intervening moments, the ones that most people ignore, or think don’t matter.

The Meme Effect

“So, I pointed my fingers and shouted a few quotes I knew, as if something that was written should be taken as true…”

One of the current LinkedIn tricks is to post a meme that makes an over-generalization in pithy language with the question, “Do you agree?” Many do this to profound effect, as people wade in with their takes and opinions.

The problem I have is that hardly any of these Meme declarations represent universal truth. For example, there is a popular saying currently in play. I see it every day. It goes like this:

“People don’t leave bad jobs; they leave bad bosses.”

Someone will post a meme with that statement and simply ask, “True?” Or, “Do you agree?”

Well, yeah. It’s true and it’s also a lie. People do leave bad bosses. No doubt. They also leave crappy jobs when a better one comes along. You could say, “Some people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses.” But what would be the fun of that? It is more accurate and less powerful.

My point is don’t build a life or a philosophy on a quote. I am saying this as a quote junkie. I love good quotes. I love to read them, weigh them, share them, and even craft them myself.

I will not, however, hang my entire view of life on your meme. Sorry.

The Misery Index

“So, I took what I wanted and put it out of my reach
I wanted to pay for my successes with all my defeats,
And if heaven was all that was promised to me
Why don’t I pray for death?”

(I use “misery index” as the header for this segment with apologies to the inept President Jimmy Carter, whose administration’s failures caused economists to create a formula with that name.)

Here is Dawes’ nod to the human tendency to have the thing we most want just beyond our grasp. It is not just a travesty. It is a tendency.

We tell ourselves that if we pay the price and we struggle well, someday we will have what we want. Some of us attain the thing we wanted only to find we wanted something more or something else. We need the struggle. We need the striving. Some part of our humanity relishes the disappointment, the sadness of never quite getting “there.”

The tip of the hat to the Christians I grew up with is in the latter part of the statement: And if heaven was all that was promised to me why don’t I pray for death?

I grew up singing about the sweet by and by. So many of our songs and sermons were about living for the life after, sacrificing now for the glory to come. I am not discounting my faith or denying that I believe in a better hereafter. I am, however, telling you that I do not believe God put you on this planet so you could spend the few moments allotted pining for another existence. Christianity is not all about death and the coming reckoning or reward. It is about life and learning to live it to the fullest. The Apostle Paul wrote about “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Go grab you some of that and quit wishing away the life you are given.

The Mastery Examined

“And now the only piece of advice that continues to help:
Is anyone that’s making anything new only breaks something else.”

I confess. I sat a long time, staring at nothing, rolling this over in my mind. I know it is not a concept or observation unique to the songwriter. He borrowed it.

Whether you are melting down one substance to use as the base of a new one, like using iron to make steel, or cracking an egg to make an omelet, or you are breaking old rules and ignoring current “wisdom” to find a new and better way, every new thing requires breaking other things.

Oh you can judge all the world on the sparkle that you think it lacks.
Yes you can stare into the abyss, but it’s staring right back.

Two people look at the sun at the same time but from different vantage points. One sees the sun setting and bringing the day to an end while the other watches it rise on a brand-new day. Same sun. Same trajectory of the earth turning on its axis. Different viewpoints.

Perspective may not be everything, but it is darn close. It is either empowering or disabling.

“When my time comes…”

Another popular meme going around LinkedIn reads, “Until my time comes, I will cheer for others.” Something like that.

I like the general feel of that meme. I like the idea of celebrating others rather than envying or despising them when they achieve something noble or substantial.

I do not like the idea of waiting around for my time to come. I wasted too many moments, too many days and years waiting for my time to come. I will wait no more. I will pursue it instead. Maybe it won’t come at all. Maybe I have to go and get it for myself.