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Faulking Around - May 6, 2006 - Printable Version
- Welcome to Our Shangri-la
by Mark Faulk
I'm in a hotel room in Texas....doing something I've always dreamed of doing (pursuing writing as an actual career). Will it pan out in the long run? To quote Faulking Truth stargazer Russell Tharp, "I can't even predict the past, much less the future." But in my head, I'm doing something I like to do now and then, I'm going somewhere else, someplace ethereal, someplace that I would make my reality if I could. Why? Because I love it here in my imaginary place.....it's quiet and calm, and people make me laugh, they make me feel passionate and in love with life, they excite me and soothe me at the same time, and everyone feels one overiding emotion for each other....compassion.
And yes, this is a private place, where only a few peoples are allowed to even take a cursory tour of the grounds, hardly anyone is allowed inside of the inner gate, ever fewer make it into the front room.....and in my entire life, I can count those who have been given a key to every room (whether they choose to use it to go into the "hidden rooms" is thier choice) on one hand....and I only give out one key at a time. There's no room for parties in this little world, it's a place for me and whoever else who takes the time to discover the key to sit and talk....listen to music and sing songs to each other (if only in our hearts)....laugh, cry, feel passion, love, and yes, even share our pain....in short, "all of the above."
And it's a place that, no matter how cruel or crazy the world gets "out there," no matter how uncaring everyone seems in our day-to-day life, we can find comfort in our own reality....and that's how it should be. EVERYONE deserves that escape, if only in their own...or someone that they loves....inner sanctum.
It was brought to my attention that this world which is shared by so few and is so seperate from the rest of reality deserves a name, and it truly does. There's actually a Kinks song called "Shangri-la," and it's my favorite song in the entire world (well...top 3 anyway), but as are many Ray Davies songs, it has a decidedly cynical side. (So today, I'll post an equally good, and slightly more uplifting song by Mark Knopfler, entitled "Our Shangri-la.")
But I love the concept....both the unreal utopian aspect of it, and the hope that it could indeed someday become tangible....in the "real world" sense. Let me only say that I hope with all of my heart that, however seemingly impossible that it might seem, that is does come true...for me, for us, and for everyone, in their own personal way.
So...from now on when I invite someone into my alternate world, the first thing they will see when they arrive will be the new sign that I've posted above the front gate:
"Welcome to Our Shangri-la"
Shangri-la P Pronunciation Key (shnggr-lä)
n.
An imaginary remote paradise on earth; utopia.
A distant and secluded hideaway, usually of great beauty and peacefulness.
OUR SHANGRI-LA
Mark Knopfler
Its the end of a perfect day for all the surfer boys and girls
the suns dropping down in the bay and falling off the world
there's a diamond in the sky, our evening stone in our shangri-la
get that fire burning strong right here and right now
Its here and then its gone, theres no secret anyhow.
We may never love again to the music of guitars in our shangrila
Tonight your beauty burns into my memory
the wheel of heaven turns above us endlessly
this is all the heaven we got, right here where we are in our shangrila.
Tonight your beauty burns into my memory
the wheel of heaven turns above us endlessly
this is all the heaven we got, right here where we are in our shangrila.
in our shangrila
in our shangrila
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