What Is The Meaning Of The Song?

MARCH 13 2011 2242 - JACKSONVILLE FL - You know what is really amazing? Songs. Well no just songs, but what those songs mean to the listener.

I am moved by a few songs, but of them all, I am most moved by a song from Mike and The Mechanics called The Living Years. I have been moved by that song for 12 years now.

I am going to tell you the story of a boy. Well, let me restate. I am going to tell you the story of a spoiled brat who had to learn things the hard way. This boy was one of five brothers, no sisters, just five boys, of which he was the 2nd oldest. This boy was always into something or the other.

One day, when the boy's mother was preparing to go and try to sign up for welfare, the boy was standing by the front door of the family house playing with a friend of the family. The boy's mother slapped him so hard that she left welps on his face for a week. The boy was only 6 years old. As a result the boy stopped speaking to his mother, and thus compelled his mother to feel that she had to buy the love of the boy. This went on pretty much through the boy entire childhood and adolesent phases.

One day, when the boy was 17 years old, he decided to invite his girlfriend over to the house while his mother was at work. The boy's brother told the mother who in turn chewed the boy out over the telephone. The boy felt that he was not going to stand for that, so after he walked his little girlfriend home, he continued walking and did so for more than 6 hours. That's right, the boy walked for more than 40 miles before returning home at about 5:00 am. His mother continued to elevate and revere the boy.

Years later, we will call it 2 and a half later, the boy marries his now pregnant girlfriend without his mother's consent. Upon returning home, his mother greeted him with a solid right cross. The boy knew he completely deserved his mother's wrath, and said nothing in return.

Now a husband and a new father, the boy decides he needed to do something to ensure he would be able to provide for his family. So the boy joins the Navy, and moves to California. While waiting to fly his wife and child to California, there was an incident between his wife and his mother. The boy sided with his wife, and vowed that his mother would never see her granddaughter (her 1st grandchild) ever again. At that point, the boy stopped speaking to his mother.

The years passed, the boy has a son, and the boy leaves California on his 2nd deployment into the Western Pacific. During that deployment, the boy's mother became gravely ill, and the American Red Cross requested the boy's presence during his mother's final hours. The boy was flown from the Phillipines to Hawaii, and from there to Norton Air Force Base in California. The boy would soon discover that as the tires of the airplane touched the ground in California, that his mother passed away at that very moment. It is believed that his mother held on just long enough to know that her son was feet dry on US Soil.

The boy arrived in San Diego and began to make preparations to travel to Washington DC for his mother's funeral. While driving from one point to another in San Diego, the boy heard for the first time The Living Years by Mike and The Mechanics. The song forced the boy to pull his car over on the side of the road and cry uncontrollably.

I know this boy very well, because this boy is me. The words of the song rang so true as I realized that my mother died without me being there to tell her that I Love Her. I carry that burden with me until the day that I will come to die. Now, whenever I hear Mike and The Mechanics singing The Living Years, I encounter two emotions. I feel the profound sorrow for the way I treated my mothers as I grew up, and I feel joy because God placed me into the life of someone who I feel to this day is the best woman I could have ever shared my life with.

It is not the song, but the meaning of the song. The Living Years has a powerful meaning for me, and as such, it is forever engraved into my heart.