Love and Happiness

September Sky ~ 9 / 9 / 2010

"When all your desires are distilled
you will cast just two votes:
To love more, and be happy."
~Hafiz~
Persian lyric poet, 1325 – 1389
When I was visiting my friend Diane out in Oregon a couple of summers ago, we went to an Emmylou Harris concert at the Portland Zoo. Of all the songs she sang that night, my favorite was one I'd never heard before, a parent - to - child love ballad entitled "Love & Happiness." The title might sound cliched, but the song itself is beautiful, unique, and heart-wrenching. Harris introduced it from her mother's perspective, saying, "My mom is 87 years old [Emmylou is now 63], and she still won't let me leave the house without a bicycle helmet." Ah, so sweet!

On Emmylou’s website you can find a joint interview of her and Mark Knopfler discussing their album of duets:

Asked about the song she penned with the Austin, Texas, songwriter Kimmie Rhodes, Harris says that "Love and Happiness" might be the only "proper" country song she’s ever written. "You can’t get fancy with that genre," she says. "Kimmie and I sat down as mothers and thought: What are the things that we would want for our children? What are the metaphors for that deep desire that your child will dodge certain bullets? And what will they need to help them deal with the bullets they aren’t able to dodge? Kimmie had the first verse in the bag, and with that wonderful structure of hers, we wrote the rest in an afternoon. Sometimes they come easy."

What got to Knopfler . . . was the . . . realisation that we can’t protect our children. "That was something for me to look at," says the guitarist. "I think we addressed it in Em’s song 'Love and Happiness,' and because you have a man and a woman singing it, both of whom are parents, it intensifies things."

"Anyone who is a parent or who’s ever been a parent feels a tug on their heartstrings by a song with those sentiments."

Love and Happiness
here’s a wishing well
here’s a penny for
any thought it is that makes you smile
every diamond dream
everything that brings
love & happiness to your life

here’s a rabbit’s foot
take it when you go
so you’ll always know you’re safe from harm
wear your ruby shoes
when you’re far away
so you’ll always stay
home in your heart

you will always have a lucky star
that shines because of what you are
even in the deepest dark
because your aim is true
and if i could only have one wish
baby then it would be this
love & happiness for you

here’s a spinning wheel
use it once you’ve learned
there’s a way to turn the straw to gold
here’s a rosary
count on every bead
with a prayer to keep the hope you hold

you will always have a lucky star
that shines because of what you are
even in the deepest dark
because your aim is true
and if i could only have one wish
baby then it would be this
love & happiness for you

and if i could only have one wish
baby then it would be this
love & happiness for you

lyrics by Emmylou Harris & Kimmie Rhodes
sung by Emmylou Harris & Mark Knopfler
on the album All the Road Running

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A FEW MORE THOUGHTS ON HAPPINESS:

"Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you." ~Hafiz

"One is happy as a result of one's own efforts, once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness -- simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self-denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience. Happiness is no vague dream, of that I now feel certain." ~Georges Sand

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P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAM!Sam at age 11
England, 2005: Riding the Tour Bus around Chester