*Just messin’ around to learn how to use Procreate*

I did it...I deactivated my Facebook account. I find it's powerfully tempting to wind down after the dinner dishes by mindlessly scrolling through posts, but thanks to some algorithm-y thing, I only see a small selection of my friends, and that frustrates me. I'm oversaturated with media - the sad/bad news, the politics and dark thinking, and when I finally head off to bed, I find myself falling asleep fretting. So - at least for awhile - I've taken myself out of the path. Surprisingly, it's been quite painless! Instead I'm learning how to use a drawing application I have on my iPad, amusingly called "Procreate". Doubtless, I'll miss friends' posts - it IS a community that has been a partial substitute for in-person visits, but like streamed concerts, it's no replacement for the real deal.

One of my high school pals periodically posts a single line of lyrics from a song, a sort of game where anyone who recognizes what he's doing responds with the next line, and other folks join in to add more lyrics. Right before I left Facebook, he posted, "Remember when the days were long?" And off we went adding lyrics to End of the Innocence written by Don Henley and Bruce Hornsby. It brought to mind Hornsby's characteristic piano style, so I went hunting to find you this video. It's a wistful song that carries that rare trait of saying a true thing that can be true from different angles. It is, of course, about the disillusionment of young adulthood, when you see that the world isn't as kind a place as you once believed. The song has always made me dewey eyed, but now it is for different reasons. The "end of the innocence" might be the end of thinking we couldn't be touched by a plague, to believing racism was on the wane, or that we could be proud of the United States as a nation.

*Bruce Hornsby live at The Current - photo by Nate Ryan*

Watching and listening to Hornsby perform beautifully in his older man's voice, I feel another disillusionment - shock at how fast life speeds by; I swear I was just listening to him on my FM clock-radio a few months ago, but it was more like 30 years ago that I first heard this song. Though I'm inclined to pretend it's not happening to me, I don't mind that I'm getting older. But I'm often caught off-guard by sudden insights about it.

Here are a couple other video versions, one with Don Henley, and one with a younger Bruce Hornsby, Bonnie Raitt, Shawn Colvin, Jackson Browne, and David Lindley

And here are the lyrics:

Remember when the days were long

And rolled beneath a deep blue sky

Didn't have a care in the world

With mommy and daddy standing by

When "happily ever after" fails

And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales

The lawyers dwell on small details

Since daddy had to fly

Oh, but I know a place where we can go

Still untouched by man

We'll sit and watch the clouds roll by

And the tall grass waves in the wind

You can lay your head back on the ground

And let your hair fall all around me

Offer up your best defense

But this is the end

This is the end of the innocence

O' beautiful, for spacious skies

But now those skies are threatening

They're beating plowshares into swords

For this tired old man that we elected king

Armchair warriors often fail

And they've been poisoned by these fairy tales

The lawyers clean up all details

Since daddy had to lie

Oh, but I know a place where we can go

And wash away this sin

We'll sit and watch the clouds roll by

The tall grass waves in the wind

Just lay your head back on the ground

And let your hair spill all around me

Offer up your best defense

But this is the end

This is the end of the innocence

Who knows how long this will last

Now we've come so far, so fast

But somewhere back there in the dust

That same small town in each of us

I need to remember this

So baby, give me just one kiss

And let me take a long last look

Before we say goodbye

Just lay your head back on the ground

And let your hair fall all around me

Offer up your best defense

But this is the end

This is the end of the innocence

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Bruce Hornsby / Don Henley

END OF THE INNOCENCE - A SONG SHOUT-OUT