'All the Roadrunning'

Occasionally I allow my world to go silent, retreating into work and thought, leaving the salve of music on the shelf for a while.

In more than two dozen hours on the road with my family recently, no one turned the radio on. Hundreds of CDs are still packed in boxes from our last move and nearly two thousand digital tracks await browsing on my PC. My twelve-string guitar sits idle in a corner.

Yesterday I reached for the radio in my truck.

At that moment, as often happens, I picked up a musical thread and followed it. The end of that thread happened to be Mark Knopfler's "All the Roadrunning," the title track of the 2006 CD recorded with Emmylou Harris.

It's a pensive ballad about the life of traveling musicians, something with which I have at least peripheral experience. Knopfler's lyric drives much deeper, however, reaching the drone and hum of our own lives, punctuated by risks taken and instants that sparkle, and the resigned satisfaction with the destiny each of us chooses.

A million miles our vagabond wheels
Clocked up beneath the clouds
They're counting down to show time
When we do it for real with the crowds
Air miles are owing but they don't come for free
And they don't give you any for pain
But if it's all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

The rim shots come down like cannon fire
And thunder off the wall
There's a man in every corner
And each one is giving his all
But this is my piper, this is my drum
So you never will hear me complain
And if it's all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

All the roadrunning

Well if you're inclined to go up on the wall
It can only be fast and high
And those who don't like the danger soon
Find something different to try
And when there is only a ring in your ears
And an echo down memory lane
Then if it's all for nothing
All the roadrunning has been in vain

All the roadrunning

The show's packing up, I sit and I watch
The carnival leaving town
There's no pretending that I'm not a fool
For riding around and around
Like the pictures you keep of your old wall of death
You showed me one time on the plane
But if it's all for nothing
All the road running, it's been in vain

I've a million miles of vagabond sky
Clocked up above the clouds
And I'm still your man for the roaming
For as long as there's roaming allowed
There'll be a rider and there'll be a wall
As long as the dreamer remains
And if it's all for nothing
All the road running, it's been in vain

All the roadrunning