One can allow themselves to be taken by the grips of sadness and disappointment, or one can laugh off the stupid dregs and just get along in the jolliest manner they possibly can. They can look at a tattered and rutty floor as needing improvement - a new gloss or finish - or see it as a spot that's witnessed and many a foot, many a shoe, many a hug, many a dance and a glide. It could be seen as a spot that's been abandoned and returned to so frequently that its highs and lows are often similar.
We can sense this equivalence in highs and lows in the songs of Philadelphia's Lawsuits, who toe the line between the poignant Dr. Dog-like moments from both the tarry and sunny guts, along with some emotions that are a bit bouncier and vibrant. They are moments that speak to beautiful resilience. They are moments filled with the mixture of a grumble and a beaming smile that could melt a reinforced bridge. They remind us of those mornings that we were pissed to have seen so much of - after seeing and being awake for so much of the evening before. Something woke us and, with that, we were up, scrambling slowly to some coffee. We didn't want to be up, but we were and somehow it all turned out to be grand. Something was reclaimed along the line. Some new vigor was found and everything wound up being alright - quite like we could have suspected it would wind up.
*Essay originally published September, 2013