2004-10-30 - 9:52 p.m. - "God Said No"

It's kind of funny that I'm juxtaposing this bit of a rant with song lyrics I've been trying to track down. The rant that was going on in my head and about which I was going to type had to do with the fact that all the guys I'd be interested in are either married or gay. The guy I had the hots for and who I wrote about recently...well I no longer have the hots for him. I've decided to just accept my singleness and drop the notion of finding any romantic love in this life. I just don't think it's in the cards for me, or like my entry title says....God Said No.

Why? Who knows, but I'm not going to bore you with the rest of my rant. Instead, I’ll post the lyrics to the Dan Bern song, “God Said No”, which appears on his New American Language (2001). I first heard Wade perform it last Spring and again this past August with his band, The Inbetweens. When he said who had written it, I looked on-line but had the last name of the composer spelled incorrectly. I finally found out how to spell Bern (not Burn) and here it is. When I read the words, I hear Wade and his band performing it in my head, and it’s just what I needed tonight to end the ranting.

“God Said No”

I met God On the edge of town
Where the wind meets the stillness
Where the darkness meets the light
Where the ocean meets the sky
Where the desert meets the rain
Where the earth meets the heavens
On the edge of town I met God

I asked God
Do one thing for me
Send me back in time
Send me to Seattle
Let me go
Find Kurt Cobain
Take away his gun
Take away his bullets
Talk to him
Make him wanna live
Tell him how we love him
Help him see his glory
God Said No
If I sent you back
If you really found him
You would only ask him
If he could
Help you get a deal
If he knows a lawyer
If he can help you
God Said No

I asked God
Do one thing for me
Send me back in time
Send me to Berlin
Let me find
The one they call Hitler
I will stalk him
I will bring him down
I will bring along
A powerful gun
Loaded with bullets
Obliterate his memory
God Said No
If I sent you back
You would get caught up
In theory and discussion
You would let your fears
Delay and distract you
You would make friends
You would take a lover
God Said No

I asked God
Do one thing for me
Send me back in time
Send me to Jerusalem
Let me go
Let me go find Jesus
Let me save his life
As they try to kill him
Let me take him down
Down from the cross
Take the iron from his body
Try to heal his wounds
God Said No
If I let you go
If you really found him
Walking with the cross
You would stare
Your tongue no longer working
Eyes no longer seeing
Ears no longer hearing
God said Time
Time belongs to me
Time's my secret weapon
My final advantage
God turned away
From the edge of town
I knew I was beaten
And that now was all I had
God Said No

30-something - 2005-03-01
the holding back the the flow of tears - 2005-02-20
song survey - 2005-02-15
song for the day...or perhaps the year... - 2005-01-25
something new - 2005-01-24
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