It's a load and it's a churn. It's all just part of the storyline, cutting through all of the travails and the fuzzy interpretations. There are more versions of ourselves to identify in old photographs and by looking down at our aging skin than we ever really think about. We can be constantly amazed by the different looks, by the ways that we allow ourselves to be so fluid rather than rigid and fixed. We find that we're fond of certain aspects of the new versions and still, the ones that we got away from or left behind are the ones that drum up the most fondness for. We were more virtuous then. We caved so much, to so many things, since then. We were more innocent. We were less shut in. Then again, the future selves that we envision are composite sketches of the old us and something more evolved yet - the us that we haven't even thought about yet, one that oddly probably turns us into modernized versions of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers or grandmothers. It tends to always go that way, without fail.
Seth Glier, a songwriter from Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, thinks a considerable amount about the person that he was, the person that he is and where it's all going from here. He likes to believe - as we all do - that we're inherently good people, but we know that it's not a guarantee and we've seen ourselves do some real shitty stuff over the years. Glier wonders about the man he used to be, wondering if it's possible to get back to that, or to just disappear. It feels that this might just be a bit of an exaggerated way of coping with some sad episode, but it's effective in addressing the meaningful and the vacated tangents that one's gone down. He comments that, "The heart as we know it is nothing but skin," and this would lead us to believe that following it at all times might not be the best thing to do, even when that's all we're taught - heart and guts, go with them. While Glier questions the man he's become, there's a girl that he sings about in this session who's quite different. She's still yearning, thinking that the best her is ahead, not behind. "She dreams of a wrap-around porch and snapping peas all day," he sings. He might do well to dream with her. Sounds healthier.