The Grateful Deads’ Box of Rain came up on the car’s CD player. I was looking for a musical change, and while I had been listening to some rather artful executed mash-up (DJ-P/Z-Trip Uneasy Listening), but I wanted an eloquent shift. Something to calm my nerves as I approached Austin’s legendary traffic. I was full of fear and trepidation.
“Box of Rain” was sad, and crossing the river, just made it more so. I think it’s a copy of a Grateful Dead’s Greatest Hits. “Friend of the Devil” came up. Made me think, looking at the construction corridor in Austin, has there been a deal with the Devil? And when one makes a deal with the devil, do you know who you’re getting in bed with?
Change is good. Change can help, but change, just for the sake of change, is that always the right way? My old, worn foot-paths are all but obliterated. The shortcut through the once empty lot? Construction zone. The vacant lot with the sign that I caught a nice picture of? High-rise now. Old is plowed under to make way for new. New, better, higher.
At least that stays the same.
