I am going to spend part of the morning writing and part of it playing this at the back door. Its Sunday, I am entitled to give myself such a break. And I might play this song (below #3) because I like the way it just eases off the strings. It was a harvest moon last night, full white and bright against a midnight blue sky, just right for dreamers and dreaming. And as I was watching the moon last night, I was thinking about the word 'contretemps', not because I use it a lot, I don't think I ever have, but it came up in something I read and I was intrigued. Also, its one of those European words that has different meanings. In English it is an accident, a mishap, or a hitch, certainly something unexpected; Robert Burns used it in To A Mouse;
On proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
gang aft aglay...
Which means (to translate) even the best laid plans go awry. But the French idea of the word contretemps is different, they translate it as 'out of time,' 'off beat,' 'out of sync,' and in that sense we can have some control over it. Don't we all feel like that sometimes? We know the train track goes one way as long as you have one wheel on each track but let's be honest, most of us walk with one foot on the road and the other in the ditch. Most of the time we can stay on track and can drag the dodgy leg back but other times, well, we begin to stagger because we want to linger, stay awhile, get off the beaten track, have a drink, stay out late, take the 'craw road' (surely its not just me)... its a contretemps, and I am having a contretemps kind of year with the dodgy leg which is stuck in the ditch. For the purists the guitar I am playing today (for I have many to choose from - although this is my fave) is a Norman with an Indian rosewood fingerboard and a wild cherry body - mine is no longer this white but a mellowing cream as it ages (and sounds better than it did when I got it - and it was great then)... all of that and still last night we had a harvest moon:
On proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
gang aft aglay...
Which means (to translate) even the best laid plans go awry. But the French idea of the word contretemps is different, they translate it as 'out of time,' 'off beat,' 'out of sync,' and in that sense we can have some control over it. Don't we all feel like that sometimes? We know the train track goes one way as long as you have one wheel on each track but let's be honest, most of us walk with one foot on the road and the other in the ditch. Most of the time we can stay on track and can drag the dodgy leg back but other times, well, we begin to stagger because we want to linger, stay awhile, get off the beaten track, have a drink, stay out late, take the 'craw road' (surely its not just me)... its a contretemps, and I am having a contretemps kind of year with the dodgy leg which is stuck in the ditch. For the purists the guitar I am playing today (for I have many to choose from - although this is my fave) is a Norman with an Indian rosewood fingerboard and a wild cherry body - mine is no longer this white but a mellowing cream as it ages (and sounds better than it did when I got it - and it was great then)... all of that and still last night we had a harvest moon:
