THIS BEAUTIFUL SCENE

The other day I had lunch with my friend (and Humans’ drummer) Greg at our “headquarters,” aka Lee’s Fried Chicken. We used to see one another there on lunch breaks years ago when we both worked nearby, and the habit stuck.

While we were there, Greg said he thought the first song from Picnic in a Landfill might be the best I’d ever written. I tried not to let it show while I was shoving delicious, crispy fried chicken into my mouth, but I was stunned. I look up to Greg as both a writer and a musician, so his opinion means a lot to me.

I mentioned that the song, This Beautiful Scene, was my attempt to write a concise history of human beings on Earth. This Beautiful Scene begins with space dust conglomerating into single-celled organisms in a cold, murky ocean. It ends with “beautiful strangers swimming from the other side.”

I was puzzled by that last line when I wrote it. Who were the strangers? What body of water were they swimming in? Where is the other side? Why are they leaving that place?

In time I realized the strangers were an immigrant family crossing the Rio Grande into the US. They’re leaving everything they know to enter a hostile and unfamiliar territory. They are risking their lives and the lives of their children. They know what’s at stake and have internalized the daunting realities of the dangers they face. They know that their children are in mortal peril at home but have calculated that the dangers they face on the other side are lesser. And so there they are — struggling towards life. Struggling for life.

Life so wanted to exist that it sprung spontaneously into being out of mere stardust a few billion years ago. It continues against all odds.

***

Picnic in a Landfill and both of the TB&TH albums are available on Bandcamp. You can download them for free, or you can pay as much as you’d like. You can also send a digital download as a gift. Today is Bandcamp Friday, when the site waives its fees and lets artists keep 100% of revenue. So go spend some money on Bandcamp today — every artist there needs your support.

Here’s This Beautiful Scene:

They came to life in the sea
in darkness

Cold water and dust from 
space

A mystery — a mystery
mystery life energy

They were here before this was 
a place

Magnetic forces attract
They attract and repel

Wild frenzied life is blind and
aimless

Solidarity — solidarity loves
company

There is a mystery 
It’s nameless

Look at this beautiful
Look at this beautiful sky tonight
Look at this beautiful
Look at this beautiful scene

Crawling up on the beach
they came from the deep

Silver scales and eyes like 
sapphires

Struggling — struggling
Struggling all together

They got up onto their feet
They started a fire

Look at this beautiful
Look at this beautiful sky tonight
Look at this beautiful
Look at this beautiful scene

Look at this beautiful sky tonight
Look at this beautiful scene
Look at these beautiful strangers
swimming from the other side

Look at this beautiful
Look at this beautiful sky tonight
Look at this beautiful
Look at this beautiful scene