I wonder why it is that the folks over at 43 Things picked the number 43. Could it be related to my favorite David Crosby song?
Page 43
Look around again
It’s the same old circle
You see, it’s got to be –
It says right here on page forty three …
That you should grab a hold of it
Else you’ll find
It’s passed you by
Rainbows all around
Can you find the silver and gold –
it’ll make you old
The river can be hot or cold …
And you should dive right into it
Else you’ll find
It’s passed you by
Pass it around one more time
I think I’ll have a swallow of wine –
life is fine
Even with the ups and downs …
And you should have a sip of it
Else you’ll find
It’s passed you by
— David Crosby, Stay Straight Music
David Crosby, in the liner notes for the CSN boxed set, says about his song “Page 43”:
It’s about the mythical instruction booklet to life that we all wish we had and don’t. An optimistic song nonetheless.
While I agree that the song does present an optimistic outlook on life, particularly if you adhere to the “Be Here Now” philosophy as espoused most popularly by Ram Dass (a.k.a. Richard Alpert), I think that far too many people on this earth feel that their particular “instruction book” is somehow applicable to a wide range of individuals with which they have little, if anything, in common except their humanity and the natural milieu upon which their lives are dependent and inter-related with (which in fact is quite a lot, when placed into perspective against their cultural and societal differences). In any case, it is my philosophy that each person must write their own guidebook, and that “book” must be by default more a memoir than a practical “how to” reference. You can investigate and evaluate the memoirs of others, hoping for a bit of insight into some of your commonalities, but, as they say, the Divine is in the details, and there’s where it’s always necessary to stray from the recipe. Then, too, Mark Twain commented once that if you truly want to describe a person so that another would recognize them without question, you cannot paint them using only their good points as a reference. The individuality of humankind is determined by its flaws, the aberrations from the norm that make us each unique.
