harry chapin
story of a life
I can see myself it's a golden sunrise Young boy open up your eyes It's supposed to be your day Now off you go horizon bound And you won't stop until you've found Your own kind of way And the wind will whip your tousled hair The sun, the rain, the sweet despair Great tales of love and strife And somewhere on your path to glory You will write your story of a life  And all the towns that you walk through And all the people that you talk to Sing you their songs And there are times you change your stride There are times you can't decide Still you go on And then the young girls dance their gypsy tunes And share the secrets of the moon So soon you find a wife And though she sees your dreams go poorly Still she joins your story of a life  So you settle down and the children come And you find a place that you come from Your wandering is done And all your dreams of open spaces You find in your children's faces One by one And all the trips you know you missed And all the lips you never kissed Cut through you like a knife And now you see stretched out before thee Just another story of a life  So what do you do now? When she looks at you now? You know those same old jokes all the jesters tell You tell them to her now And all the same old songs all the minstrels sang You sing 'em to her now But it don't matter anyhow 'Cause she knows by now  So every chance you take don't mean a thing What variations can you bring To this shopworn melody And every year goes by like a tollin' bell It's battered merchandise you sell Not well, she can see