Homeward Bound

I'm sitting in the railway station.
Got a ticket for my destination.
On a tour of one-night stands my suitcase and guitar in hand.
And ev'ry stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band.
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.

Ev'ry day's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines.
And each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories
And ev'ry stranger's face I see reminds me that I long to be,
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.

Tonight I'll sing my songs again,
I'll play the game and pretend.
But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me.
Homeward bound,
I wish I was,
Homeward bound,
Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.
Silently for me.

I just read an article about the Endeavour shuttle that's set to land in about thirty minutes at Kennedy Space Center. What an amazing thing the space program is. We send shuttles to the International Space Station with a fair amount of regularity, despite the amount of breaking foam and the history of deadly malfunctions. Still, into the stars we go.

The stars fascinate me. I could spend hours gazing into the black depths of the night sky, studying the twinkling points of light so far away. I wonder if the astronauts still look at the stars with wonder, or if they're less moved by it since they've been among them.

Then we wonder if human earthlings would ever be able to live on another planet. It's not even about the rate at which we are destroying our own (our days on this planet are numbered however you slice it), but for the sake of exploration and discovery. We would do it because we can.

I know I'll never see space the way those brave people see it. But I can still look up into the darkness and marvel that it's there, and pray for the safe landing of our traveling earthlings.