Tuesday, December 11, 2007

confession...

I thought about not posting this because I want you who read my blog to like and respect me, but in the interest of being authentic, I will push publish...

I was thinking in the shower this morning about a recent realization I had. Not like today or yesterday recent, but in the last few weeks.

You know the song Winter Wonderland?
It has the lines:
In the meadow we can build a snowman,
and pretend that he is Parson Brown.
He'll say are you married? We'll say "no,man,
but you can do the job while you're in town."
Well, I'd never thought much about these lines--in fact, probably haven't given them a thought at all since I was a child. When I was little, I simply assumed that the story was about young girlfriends (these days I should probably call them friend-girls) playing on a snow day when there's no school (because who plays with boys?) and pretending to be married to the pastor.

Upon some actual adult reflection, particularly now that I AM a pastor, I don't think that's what the song is about.

7 comments:

  1. Of course, those are the plans that they are conspiring to face unafraid while they sit by the fire.

    My mother tells the story of how, in the winter of 1954, my father, just before he went home to spend Christmas with his family, proposed to her but asked her not to tell anyone they were engaged until he got back. For the couple of weeks that he was gone, she would sing "Winter Wonderland" all the time, as her way of keeping the secret and expressing her excitement at what had happened.

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  2. oh, that's so sweet!
    Clearly, she got it much earlier than I did.
    I don't know what I thought those conspiring plans were about, but let's just say that now I get it. ;-)

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  3. Funny how we "get" things at different times...I didn't think the same about the lyrics at 8 or 12 as I did beyond my later teens....:-)

    Sarah

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  4. You are not alone. Do you know the song "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" by Brenda Lee? There is a part where she says, "Later we'll have some pumpkin pie and do some caroling." Well, ever since I was little I thought she was saying, "Later we'll have some f*ckin pie..." Seriously. Listen to it. She TOTALLY says that. It's only on her version, though. Not on any of the remakes.

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  5. My divinity school women's a capella group changed the lyrics,

    then pretend that SHE is Parson Brown,
    She'll say "are you married?"
    We'll so, "No Ma'am"....

    We thought we were so original....

    PPB

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  6. Yeah, well for YEARS I thought Cat Steven's "Ride on the Peace Train" was "I wanna be strange".

    Yup.

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  7. Ah...lyrical confusion. I love it. I want to change the verse there for the 21st Century but I can never get it to scan.

    He'll say "Are you married?"
    We'll say "No. Whatever for?!"

    Yeah. It sorta lacks something.

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