They build wooden houses on frozen ponds
In the summertime when the water’s gone
Diagonal lines in their rolled-out lawns
And the sage always smells so pretty
But nobody cares where the birds have gone
When the rain comes down on Babylon
The stonemason’s phone rings all day long
And you gotta get back to the city
I built paper planes when I learned to fly
Like a 747 fallin’ out of the sky
I folded ’em crooked and now I’m wonderin’ why
I could always end up in the water
But nobody’s askin’ why she lookin’ so thin
Why she’s laughin’ too hard, why she drinkin’ again
A falling star, she’s a paper plane
And she was goin’ down when you caught her
I build my house up on this rock, baby
Every day with you
There’s nothin’ in that town I need
After everything we’ve been through
Me out in my garden and you out on your walk
Is all the distance this old girl can take
Without listenin’ to you talk
I don’t need their money, baby
Just you and me on the rock, mm
It’s you and me on the rock
You and me on the rock
-Brandi Carlile
Brandi often tells the story about this song in concert. She got the idea from a Sunday School lesson from her childhood. She told Stereogum.com:
I had just finished the book (her memoir), and I was chronologically mining my really, really early memories. I remember Sunday school class about building your house on a rock as a little kids’ Bible story about basically building your life on a solid foundation. That foundation I think in that situation would definitely be Jesus. There was a song about building your house on a rock, and there was a little picture you colored in about building your house on a rock.
When my life changed, when everything that I identify myself by went away, I was just kind of left with a question of, well, is what I’ve built my life on really a solid foundation? I turned to [my wife] Catherine and the girls, and I wrote that song, and I realized that, yeah, even the most intensely self-identifying things can go away, but what my life is really built on, which is faith and my family, it’s a rock, and it’s solid. And then I just used some of the textures, some of the things that were happening in my day, from me being in my garden and her taking her space and going on her walks. She’s got the most beautiful English accent that I just could listen to even when she’s bitching at me. I could listen to it all day. And I just realized that they’re my foundation and that anything can change, and that won’t.
What did that earlier foundation look like for you?
CARLILE: Well, I just think that when you’re a kid and the first thing that happens when you pick up a guitar and learn to play a couple chords or open your mouth and sing a song is, the adults start telling you, “You better have a backup plan. I hope you have a plan B because the shit could hit the fan.” I’m always just like, “Eh, fuck off.” There is no plan B for an artist. But you always wonder. What if I get cancer? What if I break my back? What if I have a vocal hemorrhage, and my voice doesn’t come back? Basically, what if my job goes away? What if the thing that makes me me just stops? It happens to people every day for all different reasons in their lives, but musicians and artists almost universally have that lecture many times in their life about this backup plan.
When the pandemic hit, it was like all of our nightmares just kind of ushered in. Nobody had a backup plan. We’re artists. We don’t have any money saved. We don’t do that. It was scary because it makes you question whether or not you should’ve had a backup plan. Or what if the thing that makes me me goes away? Am I still me? Those were the questions that were in my mind. It’s like I’m not going to get a round of applause for emptying the dishwasher. But I looked around, and then I saw that what made me me wasn’t ever that.
I’ll be honest, this isn’t one of my favorite Brandi songs, but dang do I love the message.
To be honest, I would sometimes like a round of applause for emptying the dishwasher.
But Thursdays are for flowers and not for getting applause for doing basic household chores. Here is a collection of flowertography images mostly from my yard.
Next Flowertography Thursday will involve more flowers from my yard.
