Twelve years since I started my Big Project
The magnum opus in which I chronicle my life
That’s a long time to be working on one thing
Through blocks and freeze-outs and all sorts of strife
Twelve years since these songs were started
And now I’m closing in on completion
Fads and trends have come and gone
But I kept at it season after season.
Twelve years before that since I found my place
That paradise by the sea that I made my own
That’s a long time to hold onto a dream of coming back
To finally put down roots and call this place my home
Twenty-four years since the music started
The soundtrack to an ever-evolving identity
I stayed faithful through the years and all the changes
It’s still the key part of what makes me me.
It’s never been easy, only complicated
It could have been easy to let myself become jaded
But I won’t let the cynics rob me of my thunder
And I will always keep my sense of wonder
Twelve years still before that since I came into this world
Bearing the hopes and dreams of a battered nation
That’s a long time to be living for someone else’s past
Before waking up to the present generation
Thirty-six years since all I know started
That’s two times eighteen, that’s twice life survived
But I’ve lived through more than these calculated phases
And now that I’m here, I celebrate being alive.
©2023 The Hesh Inc.
A score and two years ago, I wrote this on the occasion of what I believed would be an auspicious birthday. In Jewish numerology, the number 18 signifies life ("chai"), and various gifts, donations, lottery tickets, etc. are given in multiples of 18. So 36 is "twice chai," or 2x18. So this was my way of thanking the Creator that I had made it as far as I did. Life looked beautiful from that vantage point—the future was wide open.
Little did I know what would befall the world only three days later.