This has been a favourite of mine ever since I first played the dubbed cassette copy of the "Old Material" live album of Spirit of the West made for me by a friend. I have a outline symbolic personal philosophy that covers some of my thoughts about our past, present and future and how to integrate them, and this song plays an important role in the mobius strip, "siempre" description of the future. I talk about journey over destination, process over product and "being" instead of "having" as ways to look at your future, goals and plans.
The signature of this kind of future philosophy is the last verse, and in particular the lines "I began to understand horizons don't get closer, rather you extend them further every time you make some gains."
This is one of those songs I keep close in my memory and can sing from beginning to end, either to myself or to another, whenever the mood strikes me.
The song/poem itself starts with the singer rejecting the idea of risking hardship or pain in search of some goal, enrichment or adventure. He contemplated only that his life was more confortable without the ruthless, lonely risk of setting out to strive for more. Then later thoughts arose of trying to bring change instead of resting under inertia in the safe, possibly ordinary place where your life and choices have brought you. And so he chooses a goal or destination to reach for, begins to believe he can attain it, and begins to strive toward it.
The key revelation and meaning in the song for me comes in the last verse when he is discouraged because he cannot seem to make visible progress toward his goal and wonders whether it is a waste of time to try. Finally the idea becomes clear that it is not the goal that is most important, it is the striving toward it, the journey, the process, the brings the growth and progress that enriches your life and makes more things possible for you.
I love the use of the horizon image, one that we can all bring to mind and whose behaviour we visually and instinctively understand. I makes a clear and beautiful metaphor for of a goal that seems to forever shift out of reach and stay too far away to attain, but the movement of the goal further away is a result of your progress, how far you've come, and also it brings access to more of the world and more to experience as you "extend your horizons."
This has been a favourite of mine ever since I first played the dubbed cassette copy of the "Old Material" live album of Spirit of the West made for me by a friend. I have a outline symbolic personal philosophy that covers some of my thoughts about our past, present and future and how to integrate them, and this song plays an important role in the mobius strip, "siempre" description of the future. I talk about journey over destination, process over product and "being" instead of "having" as ways to look at your future, goals and plans.
The signature of this kind of future philosophy is the last verse, and in particular the lines "I began to understand horizons don't get closer, rather you extend them further every time you make some gains."
This is one of those songs I keep close in my memory and can sing from beginning to end, either to myself or to another, whenever the mood strikes me.
The song/poem itself starts with the singer rejecting the idea of risking hardship or pain in search of some goal, enrichment or adventure. He contemplated only that his life was more confortable without the ruthless, lonely risk of setting out to strive for more. Then later thoughts arose of trying to bring change instead of resting under inertia in the safe, possibly ordinary place where your life and choices have brought you. And so he chooses a goal or destination to reach for, begins to believe he can attain it, and begins to strive toward it.
The key revelation and meaning in the song for me comes in the last verse when he is discouraged because he cannot seem to make visible progress toward his goal and wonders whether it is a waste of time to try. Finally the idea becomes clear that it is not the goal that is most important, it is the striving toward it, the journey, the process, the brings the growth and progress that enriches your life and makes more things possible for you.
I love the use of the horizon image, one that we can all bring to mind and whose behaviour we visually and instinctively understand. I makes a clear and beautiful metaphor for of a goal that seems to forever shift out of reach and stay too far away to attain, but the movement of the goal further away is a result of your progress, how far you've come, and also it brings access to more of the world and more to experience as you "extend your horizons."