Shannon’s Perspective:
If their lives were exotic and strange
They would likely have gladly exchanged them
For something a little more plain
Maybe something a little more sane
Another song off the Rush Hold Your Fire album and if you read my Open Secrets write up you already know some of my feelings about this album. If you haven’t then just know Larry became obsessed with this album around the time my brother Shane died so this album takes me back to that time in my life. It is also for that reason that the above lyrics are the ones that I relate to the most.
When you read stories of my childhood and I talk about the bad times just remember for a lot of those I was not alone, Shane was having the same shitty experience I was and most times his was worse. So, we most certainly would have exchanged them for something a little more sane.
This song has never meant anything other than inspiration to me.
Throughout my entire life since first hearing it, whether personal or professional, it has served as a jolt of energy of sorts. To think that someone who is so well read, such an inspirational writer and considered one of the best drummers of all time could write something like...
I wish I had that instinct
I wish I had that drive
...is mind boggling to me. It just goes to show what a down to earth kind of guy he was along with Alex and Geddy.
I've used various lines from this song as email auto-signature quotes in the hopes that they make someone else pause and think about it and get reenergized.
I'm also not going to lie that Shannon and I have discussed this section quite a bit as well as it relates to her health:
It's cold comfort
To the ones without it
To know how they struggled
How they suffered about it
If their lives were exotic and strange
They would likely have gladly exchanged them
For something a little more plain
Maybe something a little more sane
She would gladly exchange her constant pain and suffering for something a little more plain, a little more sane. I don't take that sentiment lightly. Sure I come home from work like everybody else - sometimes motivated, sometimes frustrated, sometimes exhausted. But as weird as it sounds this is everybody's version of "plain" and "sane".
That routine is not the life she lives.
And until you have something that causes you to be on the outside of it looking in, you probably won't understand how truly devastating that can be.
Even after writing all of the above, I still draw inspiration. Inspiration not to take for granted what I am able to do and the life I am able to live. Inspiration to be better for the life we live...
Mission
Rush
Hold your fire
Keep it burning bright
Hold the flame 'til the dream ignites
A spirit with a vision is a dream
With a mission
I hear their passionate music
Read the words that touch my heart
I gaze at their feverish pictures
The secrets that set them apart
When I feel the powerful visions
Their fire has made alive
I wish I had that instinct
I wish I had that drive
Spirits fly on dangerous missions
Imaginations on fire
Focused high on soaring ambitions
Consumed in a single desire
In the grip of a nameless possession
A slave to the drive of obsession
A spirit with a vision is a dream
With a mission
I watch their images flicker
Bringing light to a lifeless screen
I walk through their beautiful buildings
And I wish I had their dreams
But dreams don't need to have motion
To keep their spark alive
Obsession has to have action
Pride turns on the drive
Spirits fly on dangerous missions
Imaginations on fire
Focused high on soaring ambitions
Consumed in a single desire
In the grip of a nameless possession
A slave to a driving obsession
A spirit with a vision is a dream
With a mission
It's cold comfort
To the ones without it
To know how they struggled
How they suffered about it
If their lives were exotic and strange
They would likely have gladly exchanged them
For something a little more plain
Maybe something a little more sane
We each pay a fabulous price
For our visions of paradise
But a spirit with a vision is a dream
With a mission
A spirit with a vision is a dream
30th Anniversary
Our Story - Shannon's Perspective
Our Story - Larry's Perspective
Ghost of a Chance (Rush) and why?
Ghost of a Chance 