| Gordon Lightfoot – Circle of Steel Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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Our family was discussing the problems of residential schools and my wife commented on the childhood experiences of Anne Sullivan, a lady who taught Helen Keller. She was reading a biography of Anne, who spent time in an orphanage / school, and Edna brought up a rat issue and related it to a Gordon Lightfoot song she recollected. I did a google and linked “Circle of Steel”, where the rats ran around like they owned the place. I had heard the song dozens of times, but not in recent years. I gave a renewed listen and puzzled some over the words, found this website, and it sank in just how brilliant the song is. I had never really considered the observations and thoughts that Lightfoot so skillfully crafted into the song. It seemed providential that all this happened on Dec. 25 – purely by fluke – but it was a novel glitch for me. It is a thought provoking song – a brilliant observation and statement of contrast by Lightfoot. Truly, a possible view of Life is to see a circle of hard and cold steel with a selection of choices / perhaps gambles that all of us are confronted by. (Be always too soon, be never too fast, at the time when all bets must be laid! House You Live In) I feel the song drives home the fact that individuals, so often, are the product of choices made, in some cases, generations back. It is clear that bad bets have been placed but to hang the cumulative result of the blunders on one individual is foolish. I find it amusing how so much religion comfortably hangs its hat on the Christmas ritual yet we can observe the grass roots reality of Life vs so much religious thinking and action. I do feel that artistic folk like Lightfoot often have a capacity to make brilliant observations and then convert those thoughts into a form that effectively slaps the rest of us. The poor family is the result of bad bets from the past. I feel that the Christmas scene might well illustrate the same principle. Religious folk often feel they have the full deck but Lightfoot’s thoughts might clump everyone in the same gambler’s bucket. The song is a brilliant thought provoker! |
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