The Mountain’s High

A recent rumination on art and creation awakened this earworm in me:

The mountain's high
And the valley's so deep
Can't get across
To the other side

I was twelve when this song hit the charts. I was just old enough to grasp the sense of yearning that the lyrics suggested:

Don't you give up, baby
Don't you cry
Don't you give up til I
Reach the other side

Although I hadn’t yet been thwarted in love, I identified with the next verse, but the kidnapping aspect in the third line was truly ominous:

I was lonely, baby
I couldn't sleep
The night they took you
From my side

I was a lonely soul, but the “spark of love” would not be seen by me for a couple of years; and the stars wouldn’t “fall” for me for quite some time:

I was a lonely soul
Until you became my goal
And then I saw the spark of love
And then the stars fell from
Up above, oh, yeah


But it is a song of hope, not despair:

I know someday
We will meet again
But I don't know exactly
Where or when

Things are beyond our control:

But, baby,
If fate has it's way
We'll meet again some
Other day


And the reality of the situation is acknowledged:

The mountain's high
And the valley's so deep
Can't get across
To the other side

And never give up our dreams:

Don't you give up, baby
Don't you cry
Don't you give up ’til
I reach the other side

~ Dick St. John