I recall a particularly stressful period of my youth--around 15 years old or so, and no doubt the same period of awkwardness most all of us feel at that age. Not yet a adult, not exactly a child, all of us face those times when we just don't seem to fit. In particular, I remember looking forward to getting away from my home community and heading off to college--I saw it as a chance "to start over." Surely, all those awkward feelings and moments would go away, and wouldn't it be grand to restart life in a new place with new friends and new circumstances.
I wonder how often all of us have had those kinds of feelings? Something, or even many somethings, in our life gets messed up and it seems obvious that all we need is to get away, to make a clean break, to start again. Sometimes we change jobs, sometimes we move to a different house, and in more extreme cases, sometimes we try a new marriage or new relationship. Odd thing is, though, in relatively short order, the same old problems that haunted us in our last place follow us and make a re-appearance in our new place. Why? Well, as it turns out, to make things be different, we do not so much need a "new start" as we need to make some changes in ourselves. More often than not, we are the problem, not our friends or our setting or our job, etc.
This song, for me, captures that deep desire to "start again." It does not get into the likelihood that a change in circumstances will make the real change we want, but it does explore the deep desire to get away from our "chains" and to "start again." I first heard Augustana play this as part of their set when warming up for OAR at Merriwether Post a couple of years ago. You can hear the song, Boston, here, and the lyrics are below.
"Boston"
In the light of the sun, is there anyone? Oh it has begun...
Oh dear you look so lost, eyes are red and tears are shed,
This world you must've crossed... you said...
You don't know me, you don't even care, oh yeah,
She said
You don't know me, and you don't wear my chains... oh yeah,
Essential yet appealed, carry all your thoughts across
An open field,
When flowers gaze at you... they're not the only ones who cry
When they see you
You said...
You don't know me, you don't even care, oh yeah,
She said
You don't know me, and you don't wear my chains... oh yeah,
She said I think I'll go to Boston...
I think I'll start a new life,
I think I'll start it over, where no one knows my name,
I'll get out of California, I'm tired of the weather,
I think I'll get a lover and fly em out to Spain...
I think I'll go to Boston,
I think that I'm just tired
I think I need a new town, to leave this all behind...
I think I need a sunrise, I'm tired of the sunset,
I hear it's nice in the Summer, some snow would be nice... oh yeah,
Boston... where no one knows my name... yeah
Where no one knows my name...
Where no one knows my name...
Yeah Boston...
Where no one knows my name.
