My buddies Ronnie and Larry Crum and I used to get together to watch the Terps play. Here is a picture of Brother Ronnie and my daughter Ryan taken while we were watching a game in 1979.
Before he died in 2006, Ronnie was doing some serious life inventory stuff. I remember talking to him about his mid life ennui and he said “I’m just like Jimmy, pacing the cage.” He was referencing Jimmy Buffet’s song below. Every time I now hear it, I think of Brother Ronnie.
Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it’s pointing toward
Sometimes you feel like you’ve lived too long
The days drip slowly on the page
And you catch yourself
Pacing the cage
I’ve proved who I am so many times,
The magnetic strip’s worn thin
And each time I was someone else
And everyone was taken in.
Powers chatter in high places
Stir up eddies in the dust of rage
Set me to pacing the cage.
I never knew what you all wanted
So I gave you everything.
All that I could pillage
All the spells that I could sing
It’s as if the thing were written
In the constitution of the age
Sooner or later you’ll wind up
Pacing the cage
Sometimes the best map will not guide you
You can’t see what’s round the bend.
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend.
Today these eyes scan bleached-out land,
For the coming of the outbound stage
Pacing the cage.
