 | The Saddest Thing I OwnA collection of life's saddest objects, their sad stories, and our reasons for holding onto these sad things. |
So We Sailed Up To The Sun
Posted On Friday May 4, 2007 By U. S. Oscura
In the town where I was born lived a man who sailed to sea and he told us of his life . . .
The saddest thing I own is something I don’t own. It is the Beattle’s Yellow Submarine. My partner – well by the end, my wife – of 16 years used to sing it. I loved her so much for so long and then it was over. She had learned it in her childhood long before I met her and thirty years later still sung it with the same off-key girlish enthusiasm. I hated the tune at the time and the lyrics made no sense. But she used to bounce up and down as she sang it and grin like a crazy woman.
. . . in the land of submarines . . .
After we separated, now and again, I would think of the song. Later, when I was in Paris, I tried to watch the movie at a cinema near the Pompidou Centre. I made it about five minutes into it and had to leave. The sight of the Pomidou centre will always remind me of a giant yellow submarine – and of her.
. . . So we sailed up to the sun till we found the sea of green and we lived beneath the waves . . .
I still listen to the song now and again. It is something I do partly because it brings a faint flicker of a smile and partly because it hurts so much.
It makes me smile because I know that wherevere she is, with whomever she is with, she will still be smiling and jumping up and down and belting out the words.
. . . In our yellow submarine we all live in a yellow submarine . . .
What makes me sad, is that I can’t see her like that anymore. And what makes me sadder is that I don’t know that I ever really jumped up and down and screamed out the words with her.
. . . yellow submarine, yellow submarine we all live in a yellow submarine yellow submarine, yellow submarine.
Tags: beattles, girlfriend, loss, love, lyrics, music, paris, relationship, smile, song, submarine, wife, yellow
Other People's Thoughts
I love this song. I’m so sorry for your expirence. But maybe, this is just a thought, maybe you could sing that song, or maybe another one you like for other people in your life. Anyway, that was my thought. I hope it made some sense.
— Abbie Saturday November 1, 2008 #
Yes, Abbie, your thought makes a lot of sense. Some more time (2 years, wow!) has passed since I posted this and I am in a new relationship. Things change, I suppose. Though it does still make me sad that song, it makes me less so. And I have begun to search for a new song … to sing to others. So to all who read this site: it captures moments, moments that change. In that change there is always hope.
— U. S. Oscura Monday January 4, 2010 #
The Saddest Thing I Own is a 2005 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It is supported by the Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial and in recognition of the valuable contributions of artists to society.
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