Trying to Sleep on Half a Song

Back in July, 2011, I published two posts entitled “Bits and Pieces I and II. They dealt with the difficulties that I face when I have only a piece of something I’m trying to remember.

This posting is amplification on that idea. What happens if it is bedtime when you can’t complete the remainder of your half-remembered bit?  Recently, late one evening, just before bedtime, I started humming the tune of a Billy Joel song.  I had the melody down pat, but I could only remember the lyrics to 4 or 5 lines. I knew that those lines were not adjacent and I couldn’t fill-in the missing lines. It was too late for me to turn my computer back on. My wife, who  is my caregiver, knows if I get started on something on the computer, it is almost impossible for me to stop it, whether it is for dinner or bed. I had already stretched my allowed computer time well beyond its limit for the  evening. So I went to bed humming the tune and singing to myself the few lines that I knew (or thought I knew.) I had to go to bed with a half remembered song. It took me longer to fall asleep that night because my brain was engaged in this project of a half-remembered song that I had given it.

I find it amazing how our brain works, because in the morning I knew one line more of the song than when I went to bed and that one line contained the hint that I needed to remember the title of the song. The new line I remembered was “I go walking in my sleep.” So of course, the song was “River of Dreams” Right after breakfast, I started looking for the lyrics  to River of Dreams.” The lyrics of the first verse were the ones I was searching for:

 In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
From the mountains of faith
To the River so Deep
I must be looking for something
Something sacred I lost
But the river is wide
And it’s too hard to cross
Even though I know the river is wide
I walk down every evening and stand on the shore
I try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find what I’ve been looking for

         Billy Joel makes no pretense that this is a Christian song. One of the later verses expresses his spiritual position. In spite of this, I am drawn to this song. It has a haunting melody and communicates the depth of soul of an individual who is searching:

 I’m not sure about a life after this
God knows I’ve never been a spiritual man
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river
That is runnin’ through the promised land

Having found the lost lyrics, I was able to sing the song to myself all day long. That evening, soon after dinner time, there was a TV special featuring the Cathedrals quartet performing one of their signature songs, which was written by Bill Gaither, “Trying to Get a Glimpse”.The lyrics to the chorus and the last verse express some of the same longings that Billy Joel expresses. I believe that Bill Gaither is trying to say that even though we know that there is a heaven, it is natural for us to want to see and know what’s on the other side:

(Chorus)

Standing by the river, Gazing cross the raging tide
Standing by the river, trying to get a glimpse
Of what’s over on the other side, other side

(Verse)

Well I was standing on the banks
When I saw that ol’ ship take my momma home
I was standing on the banks when daddy
Crossed the river and left me all alone
Now I’m standing on the banks
Just waiting for my ride to heaven’s golden shore
And I’m trying to get a glimpse of what’s over on the
other side.

I went to bed that second night singing the lyrics to Gaither’s “Tryingto Get a Glimpse”. I fell asleep more easily and faster this second night, and woke up singing both songs.Since this episode, I have created cheat sheets that have the lyrics to both songs, and I have been able to sing them any time I desire, and I’ve had no nights of fitful sleep at least over these two songs.