The Moral of the Story Is to Begin

A note to young leaders.

We all live in a tiny bubble – such is the narrow peephole of human consciousness. Languid holidays, by puncturing our routines, remind us of this.

And once free from our bubble, however briefly, we discover just how vast and delightful the world really is. One such delight for me this holiday season was stumbling across the astonishing ballad, “We Will”, by Irish singer/songwriter, Gilbert O’Sullivan.

Here is a song that deals with the lot of a single mum raising two young kids. She gets through her days preparing breakfast, cajoling and bantering with the kids, playing soccer with them, visiting relatives – all the time wondering how to start again without her partner.

O’Sullivan somehow manages to convey the sweet, busy melancholy of her life with a kitchen-sink conversational ease. It’s unpretentious, full of nostalgic detail and rings with the authenticity of autobiography.

O’Sullivan lost his father to stomach cancer when he was twelve, and the spirit and voice of his mother surely hangs all over this masterpiece. This is a song best listened to with the lyrics in front of you. It’s poignant poetry, set to melody.

“Turn the landing light off, no wait, leave it on. It might make the night that much easier to be gone.” You get the distinct sense that his mum wants the lights left on for her benefit, not so much the kids.

In most stories the moral, if there is one, is at the end. In this story, the moral is that there is no end. Life goes on and “the moral of the story is to begin.”