Timeless Stories

Listening to the Dixie Chick's Travelin' Soldier today and thinking about timeless stories. This particular one about a tragic romance between two innocent young people as one of them heads off to war and dies. There's all kinds of letter-writing. And telegrams. And girls with bows in their hair.

It made me think a little bit about this really powerful Josh Ritter song, Girl In the War about... just that...someone who has a girl in the war while he waits at home for her safe return. Of course, this song has a lot of layers of meaning about Gods and devils and angels and doves and what not. But...it's a love story. About having somebody go off to war while someone is left behind.

And this tale has been told millions of times and we never get tired of hearing it.

Because no matter how modern its telling, I feel like it always takes place in a forest as a young woman buries her head in her lap and sobs, while the young man stands stoically next to a tree, a gun dangling from his left side as he stares off into the great, wide, yonder, ready for whatever daring feats lie ahead.

I love timeless stories.