I know this will come as a great shock but I was out on a run a few days ago. This is when a song came through my headphones and sunk deep into my consciousness. I normally allow my mind to wander wherever it wants to go when I’m running. On this day though this song determined my line of thinking for a few minutes. The song in question is entitled High Hopes by the band Pink Floyd. First let me discuss the band Pink Floyd. They are freaking awesome!!!! If you are unfamiliar please take some time and take a listen. If I can make one recommendation to my running friends out there, download “Run Like Hell” from The Wall and prepare to well…run like hell. On this day though it was High Hopes from the 1994 Division Bell album. An amazing song from an even better album. But, since I’m not applying for a job at Rolling Stone Magazine I’ll try to get to my point. This song starts off with bells ringing in the background, flies buzzing, a large bell ringing in the forefront and what sounds like a single key piano solo. I’d describe it as nothing but haunting. Beyond the genius of the intro, it was the lyrics that day that got me thinking about something I normally try to spend very little time thinking about. The lyrics that kept echoing in my head went like this:
“Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young,
In a world of magnets and miracles
Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begun”
What was singer David Gilmour’s thoughts and meaning behind this verse? I wasn’t sure, so when I got home I looked it up. The first couple lines are essentially about how when we are born we all see life the same way but as we age we are drawn (magnets) in different directions. The next two lines indicate that as our thoughts start to stray away from our original station, sometimes in very different directions that is when the “division bell” starts to ring. The “division bell” is exactly what it sounds like. The words, thoughts and actions that divide us as people. I started to get a little sad thinking about how loud our bell of division is ringing right now. Maybe it’s been ringing forever and now it just seems to be coming in stereo. This led me down a place in my distant thoughts. Who is ringing the bell and why? I have theories as I’m sure do you. I’m not going to bore you with mine but I am going to bore you with this thought brought on by a song that was written over 27 years ago.
A bell-ringer is by definition a person rings a bell. This is the most simple job title of all time. That being said, if you ever figure out who is the “division” bell-ringer in your life, get rid of them. It could be the news sites we read, politicians we vote for, friends, social media “friends”, or co-workers. Regardless of who it is they can’t control our thoughts or our actions. They can ring their bell all day and night but only we get to decide what it means to us. I love the fact that there are so many different types of people with so many diverse thoughts but we can never let the bell-ringer decide how we treat each other. Bell-ringers have one job, ringing bells. Division bell ringers only have one job, dividing us. They can’t do it, only we can.
Almost everywhere I go I see the same sign, “we are in this together”. I know the sign is referencing the fight against Covid-19, but why limit it to that scourge. I don’t want to get too sappy but, we are in this together. For example, Before you send a nasty tweet about someone you don’t know or understand, never forget, that person may be the one driving by to give you a hand in the pouring rain when you have a flat tire. The next time you are running on a trail and tumble to the desert floor it may be a mountain biker that comes by to give you aid. The next time you’re enjoying a perfectly cooked Filet Mignon and start to choke it may be a Vegan that gives you the Heimlich maneuver.
About four minutes later my headphones started filling my brain with a new vibe and whole new set of thoughts. But before I completely switched to hopefully more light hearted thoughts, I thought of another great Pink Floyd song called “Us and Them”. As I was thinking about this song I looked around and studied what I saw in the area I was running through. What I saw was “Us”. Dozens of people enjoying the outdoors, walking their dogs, pushing strollers, jogging, waving hi and discussing the non-sense of our lives. You know who I didn’t see? “Them”. When you are out living your life there are no “Them’s” There are no Division bell-ringers. There is just “Us” with our High Hopes.
A Rock in Your Shoe 