Well, they’re not showing any lights tonight
And there’s no moon
There’s just a hot-blooded singer
Singing “Memphis in June”
While they’re beatin’ the devil out of a guy
Who’s wearing a powder-blue wig
Later he’ll be shot
For resisting arrest
I can still hear his voice crying
In the wilderness
What looks large from a distance
Close up ain’t never that big
Bob Dylan, "Tight Connection To My Heart"
The next-to-last verse of "Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anyone Seen My Love)" is cited in that "pull quote" just above. If you'd like to read the full lyrics, click on the link to the title of the song. Click right here if you'd like to hear Dylan sing the song, and if you'd like to watch his official video (which is pretty weird and mystifying, if you ask me).
What I want to comment on are the last two lines of that verse I'm citing, which I have bolded. Dylan's statement in those last two lines (at least to me) doesn't seem to relate very directly to the story being told in the song. Dylan's statement, in fact, is a stand-alone piece of significant wisdom that any thoughtful person might want to bring forward during a discussion of love, life and death - and other important topics we all know about. Those last two lines in that next-to-last verse provide us with a piece of wisdom we all ought to keep in mind!
What Dylan says in those two lines is true, isn't it, as a general proposition? What seeems to be so "big," so "important," the things that we're told are earthshaking and of critical impact, the odds we are informed are insuperable, only seem to be that way until we encounter them "close up."
Dylan has such little pearls of wisdom scattered throughout his prodigious work - something that is also mentioned in another, and fairly recent, blog posting of mine, discussing a relatively new book about Dylan's literary and philosophically important work over the last thirty years or so. Let's take this quoted statement seriously - the statement I have bolded; that's what I am suggesting.
The things that seem overwhelming, the challenges that present themselves to us, and to the world, as something impossible to deal with, the problems we "can't solve," only seem that way when we're not actually grappling with them "close up."
Restoring democratic self-government to the United States. Making real progress on income inequality. Stopping the wars that are proliferating everywhere, abolishing the potential for nuclear war, providing meaningful work for everyone, etc. These are the kind of gigantic challenges which do, indeed, "look large."
When we get to work on any of those "looks large from a distance" problems and challenges, though - if we are bold enough, or "crazy" enough to take them on - we mostly find that they aren't really that big. Not once we're up close and personal, not once we get personally involved in dealing with them.
Courage to take on the monumental challenges that do, indeed, seem "monumental," is essential. Essential, anyway, if we want to accomplish what we must. The challenges that will determine the future of democracy, the future of the human race, the continued habitability of Planet Earth, the future of our children and grandchildren - all of these challenges seem "large," too large to take on. But are they, really, when we take them on "close up"?
Think about picking your own, "looks large" problem, but as you do that, remember this piece of wisdom from Mr. Dylan. "What looks large from a distance, close up ain't never that big."
I'm old. I've been around, and I have been listening to Mr. Dylan for a long time. Think about it. He's right about this. I hope that's motivating!
Good point! The opposite could also be argued, that what doesn't look like much up close, could turn out to be of significant importance from a distance, say the distance of time. I like your KYMO suggestion.
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