On the Edge of Common Sense

In the midst of Covid-19, one of the deepest psychosies’ is loneliness. “Social distance,” sliding take-out tacos under the door, being served pizza across the counter like a Frisbee, having to carry a measuring tape and whip it out like Marshal Dillon to confirm 6 feet every time some masked stranger comes your way...all to prevent civil discourse and staying friends. IT IS DEPRESSING. Those of you historians familiar with the pioneers who came west know they often found themselves in the lonely isolation that some of us are feeling today. Yet we RISE TO THE OCCASION, BRAVE AND INSPIRED TO MAKE THE BEST OF IT.

Blue lonesome is dang hard to handle

Especially out where the road ends

So any excuse for a party

Is welcome, and bound to make friends.

Once, a pilgrim seekin’ some solace

Staked a claim a long way from town.

He’d come from the itch of the city

And in six months he’d settled down.

He built himself a small cabin

He sat on the porch one fine day

When he saw a rider approaching.

He saw him from miles away.

The rider said he was up country

And rarely came this way at all

But he thought he’d be a good neighbor

By throwin’ a cowboy ball!

The pilgrim inspected this stranger

Who never got down from his horse.

He looked like he needed a dentist,

His manner was rugged and coarse.

But lonesome can pray on a body

And the stranger sounded sincere

“We can dance all night if we want to,

Play music and toast the Frontier!

We’ll eat and we’ll drink and be merry,

I’ve whiskey enough for us all...

So whattya say, are ya willin’

To come to a cowboy ball?”

The pilgrim was mullin’ it over,

“Ya say they’ll be whiskey and dance?

And maybe a kiss in the moonlight?”

The stranger said, “Yeah, there’s a chance.”

“So what should I wear?” asked the pilgrim,

“It sounds like a pretty good do.”

The stranger said, “Heck, it don’t matter,

‘Cause, Pilgrim, it’s just me and you!”