“Is it strange?”
Spring, 1970
The Boxer was written by Paul Simon, and recorded by Simon & Garfunkel. The song was first released as a single in 1969, and then included on the Bridge Over Troubled Water album in the spring of 1970.
June, 2025
Since about last Tuesday, I’ve been swelling with waves of emotions, ranging from euphoria to melancholy, in the wake of sitting before the genius who scribbled those words so very long ago.
Last night and this morning, I worked on a closet overhaul, switching to my summer clothes. As I removed each item, fresh from the dryer, I carefully folded it, with intention. For a moment, I held a warm piece of laundry to my face, inhaling the clean scent of the fabric softener. As I placed the neatly folded parcel down on top of the washer with the others, a song from Paul Simon’s show last Friday evening returned to me, only I changed the words in my mind. “Now I’m laying out my summer clothes”… It came back to me in that moment. “and wishing I was home… going home…”
From the moment the strings of Mr. Simon’s acoustic guitar rang out through the old Wang Theater, (now the Boch Center Wang Theater), with it’s crystal clear acoustics, I stood completely still, as if I might wake from the dream if I so much as breathed. His voice, now slightly raspy with age, was still in tune. The hands that had strummed these songs so many times before were now wrinkled with age. The memory has encased itself deep inside my heart. Bits and pieces keep coming to the surface. I can’t believe, after listening to the records and 8 Track Tapes in the 1970’s, cassettes the 1980’s, shiny CD’s in the 1990’s, followed by the days of MP3, this 80 year old man sat on a wooden stool about 50 feet from me, playing and singing The Boxer. The song from last Friday night came to me this morning, while I was laying out my summer clothes for the 58th time, with complete uncertainty of how many more summers there will be for myself, Paul Simon, or these beautiful memories.
One thing I know for sure; after hearing this song so many times, hundreds, more likely thousands, the way it makes me feel has never changed.
“After changes upon changes,”
“…we are more or less the same,
After changes, we are more or less the same.”
