Comes A Time

From day to day
just letting it ride
you get so far away
from how it feels inside
You can’t let go
cause you’re afraid to fall
till the day may come
when you can’t feel at all
Comes a time
when the blind man
takes your hand
says: don’t you see?
got to make it somehow
on the dreams you still believe
Don’t give it up
you’ve got an empty cup
only love can fill
only love can fill
— Excerpt from “Comes A Time” by Robert Hunter. There’s a very nice version on the aforementioned concert release.
What makes time elastic? No, wide-eyed, not drugs. This is serious.
Music makes time elastic by entraining our emotions with a larger group, which includes both the musicians and the audience group-mind. Subtle changes in the sonic rhythm create physical sensations (via hearing), and this triggers thoughts, memories, dreams and reveries. In some ways, the better the music, the better the dreaming while listening. This elasticity frees us from our linear perspective and lightens our mind. Music is a universal joy, in all cultures, through all time.
What makes time inelastic? The steady drone of asexual press releases, so-called factual news accounts, quantitative reductionism and amoral political manipulation.
Is it any wonder that we suffer from a lack of imagination today?