At the center of my true heart lies an innately curious, bespectacled nerd. My latest fascination has been the infinite universe, the journey beyond our known environment. I’ve been reading Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot which discusses the human future in space and how minuscule we are relative to the vast cosmic ocean. The “pale blue dot” refers to a photograph of Earth taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from 3.7 billion miles away. There we exist as a lonely speck of faint blue light, floating in an expanse of darkness. It is a terrifying solitude. But yet, we are all here together, writing our histories in the same place they’ve all been written before.
Stone Cold Fox’s American struck me neither as patriotic nor proud. Instead, the gritty guitar riffs and pounding drums echo nostalgia and hope. It speaks to the shared journey of existence, to the dream that we all seek to determine. It’s the human experience, not just the American one.
I will stay up late and dig my own trench
I’ll ask all the questions they never present
And it’s sick and its vain and it’s hard to explain
To question the role or the play of the game
Not for your founding father or for the new born threat
Not for your radical breach that you tend to forget
Not for your good mother or the weight of her debt
Not for your children at sea, but your own way.”
Stone Cold Fox is beautifully and aptly Americana; the guitars are bright and the bass drum kicks hard. Kevin Olken Henthorn‘s vocals quiver with sentiment before resounding with determination. American is both a reminder of our origins and a declaration of our future. Maybe it’s an emotional Monday, but this track is just what I needed for a fresh start. After all, we’re all stuck in this cosmic search together.