Bob Dylan fans will just take one look at that picture, above, and know exactly what song I am thinking about. You can click right here for a review of and meditation on "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts." The song is featured on Dylan's album, Blood On The Tracks. If you click the link to the title of the song, you'll be presented with the full lyrics. This link will let you listen to the song.
As is so often the case with the Dylan songs I listen to and remember, I associate this song with just one verse - and actually with just one line of the lyrics:
Rosemary started drinkin’ hard and seein’ her reflection in the knife
She was tired of the attention, tired of playin’ the role of Big Jim’s wife
She had done a lot of bad things, even once tried suicide
Was lookin’ to do just one good deed before she died
She was gazin’ to the future, riding on the Jack of Hearts
Thinking about life (and remembering those bad things, maybe - some of those things we'd like to forget), isn't it natural to wonder if there is "just one good deed" that we might do before we die?
Rosemary's pick - killing off an abusive and unfaithful husband - is not my personal recommendation, but thinking about that condign assignment, that "one good deed" we know we really need to do, is almost always going to require self-sacrifice. That's how we know it's a good deed.
When we give up something, ourselves, for the benefit of someone else, we are working out the real meaning of life.
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