Ain’t it Funny How Times Slips Away?

It’s Willie Wednesday, and maybe because I was sick as a dog last week, I’ve been wondering how Willie – who is exactly twenty years older than me – manages to keep doing 200 dates a year on the road while recording, writing and advocating for what he believes in. Of course, time is relative, so to speak, and is also the subject of a chapter in our book, The Tao of Willie. Here’s an excerpt followed by a Willie Video of Dave Matthews’ song Gravedigger that you absolutely HAVE to see. I’ve watched it many times, but should confess that I always stop it before that final shot. turk

(My column this week is dedicated to the life and memory, family and friends of the wonderful George O’Dwyer who did so much for our work at The Nobelity Project, and who shone so brightly throughout his life.)

Aint It Funny How Time Slips Away
from “The Tao of Willie” by Willie Nelson and Turk Pipkin (all rights reserved)

“Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies… like a banana.”
– Townes Van Zandt

Every few years, my pal Turk pulls out his ratty reporter’s notebook and asks me one of those questions that makes me HIS canary in the coal mine.
“What’s the best age?” he asks.
And so far, I’ve always said the same thing. “This one.”

So what can I say about getting older that hasn’t already been said by a bunch of other old farts?
I’ve heard it said that you’re only as old as your feel. I’d find that more of a comfort if I didn’t wake now and then feeling pretty dang old.

But most mornings, after a nice night’s sleep with Gator driving the Honeysuckle Rose a few hundred miles through the heartland of America, I can hardly wait to peak out the blinds and see where we are.

One of the beauties of the bus is that we could be anywhere. I could look out the window and see endless fields of wheat, the snow of the Rocky Mountains or the rolling waves of the Gulf coast. If we get to the gig early enough, I may have time to sneak in nine holes of golf before the show. I’ll also get to talk to a few old and new friends about what’s going on in our lives and in the world. And the next thing I know, the band will be onstage and we’ll be launching into Whiskey River.

No one knows how long I’ll be able to keep this pace, but I can promise I’m in no hurry to give it up.
Remember our little Einstein talk? According to the theory of relativity, you can’t say ‘when’ you are without knowing ‘where’ you are. And as long as you keep moving, the past and the future blur until what you truly know is now.

So I try to take things not only one day at a time, but one moment at a time. The only way time is on my side is if I live every moment of it fully. That doesn’t mean I’m not getting old, or I won’t die. But it will in the long run, I think, help me accept my own passing. Knowing I made the most of what I was born with and saw and learned along the way. Instead of fearing death, I’d like to think of it as the next step along the way.

Since we know so little of the whole, it’s all the more important to know yourself. That brings us to the last question, the question that will best start your day, possibly every day, of your life.
The question is, “Who am I?”
Within the answer to that question is the thing we call happiness.

As for myself, I am just a troubadour going down the road, learning my lessons in this life so I will know better next time. I believe the lessons are out there waiting to be found, and waiting inside me to be found as well.

As the miles and miles of miles and miles roll by, I try to listen to the voice inside me as it offers advice, tells tales and whispers the melody to what will be my next song.

Depending on the time of day, and what’s been bouncing around in my life, those voices may not always be in my best interest. If an inner voice says, “Tell Gator to stop the bus on the next overpass so I can determine whether I can fly or not,” then I’ll probably have a cup of coffee and choose to listen to some other voice.

I like it when the other voice reminds me that I am the luckiest man on earth, that I am surrounded by a very large family of people I love and whom I love, and that as long as my body and this bus will carry me, I can step on stage and lift my heart in song that will carry me and my audience through the worst that life has to offer.

Knowing this may not spare me from the sorrows of life and the troubles of the world, but together — myself, my family and my friends and fans — we use that common song in our hearts to carry on.

In the end, all of us are just angels flying close to the ground.

Returning to the words of Kahil Gibran that I first read so many years ago, I am reminded that in our quest to return to God, each of us, in our heart, carries a map to that quest, a map that is made of love.

Love is what I live on. Love is what keeps me going.

So all I can say to you is what I’ve said to myself a thousand times.

“Open your heart, Willie, and give love a try. You’ll be amazed at what happens.”

So far, it’s worked pretty well.

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