Sunshine came softly

Tuesday 18th February

Sunshine came softly to my window today. So sang Donovan, our very own mixture of early Dylan and pixie.  A strange hippy-like figure he came up with some lovely melodies and fey whimsical songs in the late sixties.  The line that followed of course was “Could have tripped out easy, but I’ve changed my ways”.

A reminder of the ever-present lure of drugs then too.  I was actually a complete innocent.  Or not.  Actually I knew what the drug references were, or some of them, but had never actually tried any myself.  That conservative bit of my nature fighting with the rebellious side.  But in my thoughts the drugs were all mind-expanding – going on a trip, blowing your mind, expanding your horizons.  I never understood the other side of the drug culture, the dependency, the addiction, the crime and desperation that accompanied it.   You never know too whether the songs that came out of that drug culture would have been better or worse without them.  Songs like Strawberry fields, Day in the Life, Visions of Johanna.  Would they have ever been written without the liberating effects of drugs.

Anyway one thing was for certain, I never needed drugs to appreciate them.  Even the trippiest of Hendrix guitar breaks sound fine without any blurring of my consciousness.  Apart from a couple of mild forays I have steered well clear of them.  And today Sunshine came softly to my window, here in Eymet it was a glorious sunny day.  Gentle early spring sunshine but enough to lift the heart a notch or two; which makes the news from England all the more poignant I suppose.