House of Blues – At Principle Gallery
‘Cause I have all of life’s treasures and they’re fine and they’re goodThey remind me that houses are just made of woodWhat makes a house grand, oh, it ain’t the roof or the doorsIf there’s love in a house, it’s a palace for sureBut without love it ain’t nothin’ but a houseA house where nobody lives
–Tom Waits, The House Where Nobody Lives (1999)
It feels like America in the year 2025– a house without love or joy. Or happiness. Or grace, vision, or humor.
Any of those things that make a house feel lived in.
Those things that make a house a palace of love.
We instead build endless chain-link cages to fill with our hatred and bigotry.
That’s all I will say this morning.
You might not agree. Fine.
Just calling ’em like I see ’em, as the ump behind the plate would say. Just hoping your individual houses are filled with love and laughter.
Here’s the Tom Waits song that made me think this with the full lyrics below.
There’s a house on my block that’s abandoned and cold
The folks moved out of it a long time ago
And they took all their things and they never came back
It looks like it’s haunted with the windows all cracked
Everyone calls it the house
The house where nobody lives
Once it held laughterOnce it held dreams, did they throw it away, did they know what it means?Did someone’s heart breakOr did someone do somebody wrong?
Well, the paint is all cracked, it was peeled off of the woodThe papers were stacked on the porch where I stoodAnd the weeds had grown up just as high as the doorThere were birds in the chimney and an old chest of drawersLooks like no one will ever come backTo the house where nobody lives
Oh, and once it held laughterOnce it held dreams, did they throw it away, did they know what it means?Did someone’s heart breakOr did someone do somebody wrong?
So if you find someoneSomeone to have, someone to hold, don’t trade it for silverOh, don’t trade it for gold‘Cause I have all of life’s treasures and they’re fine and they’re goodThey remind me that houses are just made of woodWhat makes a house grand, oh, it ain’t the roof or the doorsIf there’s love in a house, it’s a palace for sureBut without love it ain’t nothin’ but a houseA house where nobody livesBut without loveIt ain’t nothin’ but a house, a house where nobody lives
–Tom Waits, The House Where Nobody Lives (1999)
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