I got to work today and there were open spots in the paved parking lot so I didn't have to park in the gravel overflow lot like usual. Not because I arrived early, but because it's a summer Friday and a bunch of people must be starting their weekends early.
I pulled into a prime spot and turned off the engine, leaving the radio on to listen to Paul Simon's song, "Rewrite," all the way to the end. I'd heard it many times as a witty little ditty but had just recently heard the words in the final chorus.
I once took a course at the Iowa Summer Writers Festival on (if I remember the term correctly, and I don't believe I do) the Dramatic Moment, the point in a story when it stops being about this particular character in this particular situation and becomes a story about humanity or the world or society. Or about me, the reader. It's the point when the skies open up and Capital-T Truth is revealed. I hope to do that. Just once.
In "Rewrite" the narrator tell us he's working on a rewrite of a story. He's gonna change the ending and trash the title so he can sell his story for big bucks. Witty and light-weight, right? Then the last verse:
I'll eliminate the pages
Where the father has a breakdown
And he has to leave the family
But he really meant no harm.
Gonna substitute a car chase
And a race across the rooftops
Where the father saves the children
And he holds them in his arms.
Damn. Little ditty gets me every time.
