What seems like 100 years ago, Vaughn Monroe, Frankie Laine and a few others sang a catchy and popular song, Ghost Riders in the Sky. But it wasn't the tune that has haunted me all these years, but the meaning lurking in its lyrics:
An old cowpoke went riding out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red eyed cows he saw
A-plowing through the ragged sky and up the cloudy draw
Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
For he saw the Riders coming hard and he heard their mournful cry
Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat
They're riding hard to catch that herd, but they ain't caught 'em yet
'Cause they've got to ride forever on that range up in the sky
On horses snorting fire, as they ride on hear their cry
As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name
If you want to save your soul from Hell a-riding on our range
Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride
Trying to catch the Devil's herd, across these endless skies
Civilization has developed and shaped most of us into a herd of Riders forever chasing a herd of cows...whatever they may be: fame, fortune, power. The chase is a tedious and tiring one (their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat)...and for most, an unsuccessful one (but they ain't caught 'em yet). Better change your ways, the song warns or you, too, will become an eternal Ghost Rider (trying to catch the Devil's herd across these endless skies).
What are we chasing? The greatest value is life itself, and that each of us already has. The intoxications of life...the bounties of life...sights, sounds, aromas, textures, music, beauty, love, serenity, spirituality...are always at hand. They abide within us, they abound around us. If we don't take the moment to stop and rest atop the ridge, to gaze without and within, to contemplate and to feel to the depths of our soul, then we are destined to a life of mournful cries.
It is a haunting song.
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