Under the Green Desk Lamp…
The following post is part of ‘The Evocation Series’. Click Here for more information about the project, and to learn how to get involved yourself!
Bruce Springsteen- ‘Straight Time’
There is a precarious balance we all must face. It’s a struggle, whether conscious or not, to maintain the equilibrium between our compulsion for virtue and our desire for self-betterment. Certainly, these are not antithetical concepts, but the world can surely make them feel so at times.
In the darkness before dinner comes,
Sometimes I can feel the itch.
We all make sacrifices. With each effort to stay on whatever path seems best, we watch other opportunities slip away. Old friends, cherished memories, lost loves—all fade into the distant past, like fog giving way to morning light, we are left to what we have chosen, and must leave the rest behind.
But you get used to anything,
Sooner or later it becomes your life.
It works, for the most part. We go along our path, and we seldom pause to question it. We stick with what works, and slowly we close the door on all those other potentials—dreams on the wind; childish, silly things.
Seems you can’t get any more than half free,
I step out onto the front porch, and suck the cold air deep inside of me.
Then, there are those other times. Suddenly, all those forgotten potentials seem like just yesterday. The knot of conviction loosens, and those old fantasies feel so close to your grasp, it would take but the smallest slip to reach out and take hold. And at what cost, exactly?
If we’re lucky, we will never know.
Got a cold mind to go tripping cross that thin line,
I’m sick of doin’ straight time.
Push it down baby, bury it deep. A mind in turmoil is quick to question its course, to debate and dissect all the small decisions which have set us upon our present heading. But a placid mind, reassured by peace and comforted by contentment, may move past this unease, and with sufficient will and wisdom, will let those fleeting moments pass.
-Brad OH Inc.
Brad OH Inc. 
At the start of your article I was surprised by the words “… equilibrium between our compulsion for virtue and our desire for self-betterment”. To me, the attitude in the song seemed to equate self betterment with taking the easy road and stealing what someone else had worked for instead of working yourself. Your final paragraph was much more to my way of thinking.
Yeah, ‘selfish self-betterment’ might have been a bit more accurate to the song, but I wanted to leave it open. Great song though right?