All Hail Robert Plant…
If it keeps on raining levee’s going to break
If it keeps on raining levee’s going to break
When the levee breaks have no place to stay
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan
Got what it takes to make a Mountain Man leave his home
Oh, well; oh, well; oh, well.
Don’t it make you feel bad?
When you’re trying to find your way home you don’t know which way to go?
When you’re going down south and there’s no work to do
And you’re going on to Chicago
Crying won’t help you, praying won’t do you no good
Crying won’t help you, praying won’t do you no good
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to go
All last night sat on the levee and moaned
All last night sat on the levee and moaned
Thinking about my baby and my happy home
Going – going to Chicago
Going to Chicago
Sorry, but I can’t take you
Going down – going down, now
Lyrics by Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie (1929) Immortalized by Led Zeppelin
When anything begins to crack, there are all kinds of glue that will make it solid for a little while, but eventually it’s going to break. That thing my be a lovely thing, a wonderous thing – a most cherished heirloom. You may hang on to it because it is so precious, but every time you take it out and expose it to the world, the repairs weaken ever so slightly, and you start to realize that the only way to preserve this beautiful treasure is to leave it, untouched. You can’t inspect it, you can’t test it’s capacity, you can’t really appreciate it the way it ought to be appreciated because the inherent flaws could leave you with irreprable damage and scalding tea on your lap.
I have always tried to take these beautiful, flawed treasures and re-purpose them. Give them new life in the form of mosaic or quirky costume piece, or something else grand and worthy of their history. I haven’t always been so successful at this.
Today I feel successful at very little indeed. There is no better time for rain.