Philosophy is Exhausting

Contemplating Life's Meaning and Purpose

I recently read a quote from Rosalynn Carter. Quotes don’t usually stick with me, but I’m old now, and that’s what old people do — quote people like Rosalynn Carter. So I learned how to spell Rosalynn her way and pocketed the quote for personal reasons.

She said, and I quote,

“There are only four kinds of people in the world: those who have been caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.”

I suppose the natural inclination is to figure out which “caregiver” you currently are, which makes you think about caregiving and how it applies to you at this stage of your life. It’s a good thing to think about, but that’s not really why the quote stayed with me. I’m intrigued by the word caregiver. One who gives care. I looked it up. There’s a band named The Caregivers. Yes, that’s what I looked up — whether there was a band named The Caregivers. 76 and I’m still thinking of the next good band name.

Actually, as you might expect, there are SEVERAL bands for any name in the dictionary. There are The Caregivers, plus another band that dropped the “The” and are just Caregiver, and another called Caregivers, plural. There are Caregiver bands here in the U.S., more in the U.K., and I’m betting around the globe. But the one that caught my eye had this description on bandcamp.com:

Founded in February of 2021, The Caregivers, led by PURGE, (not sure which Purge, there are several bands named Purge). They are a group dedicated to completely recreating The Caretakers’ discography using covers of the original samples used in their albums.

So, The Caregivers are playing the music of The Caretakers, but it isn’t clear if they are an actual “cover” band. More like a hybrid band, I guess.

Caregiver. One who gives care.

Caretaker. One who takes care?

What an interesting title to hold. When the day comes that a caregiver can do no more for you, you are handed over to the caretaker.

I’m sure you’re thinking that’s where I’m going with this piece, writing about life and death. Nah. I think band names are more challenging. You can ponder life and death until you… well… die… at which point you’ll figure it all out. But you’ll never figure out some band names or even album and song titles.

For example, there’s a song by Pavlov’s Dog, on their debut album, Pampered Menial (1975), called “Theme From Subway Sue.” Singer David Surkamp does not sing the words Subway Sue anywhere in the song, which is not about someone named Sue and has nothing to do with a subway. There is no obvious clue in the song that explains the title, but it has that name for a reason.

During the recording of the song, the band’s violinist, Siegfried Carver, misunderstood what Surkamp was singing. He thought Surkamp was singing “subway sue,” so the name stuck as a working title, and eventually the official name. David was singing “someday soon.” If you have ever heard Davis Surkamp sing, you would sympathize with Siegfried Carver, whose real name was Richard Nadler. I’m not sure why he went with Siegfried Carver, and I may never know. Nadler was turned over to his caretaker in 2009.

Now to my point. Whenever thoughts about life and death — or caregivers and caretakers — come up, I find my mind wandering off topic to inconsequential things like band names and song titles. Is it just me, or do we all avoid what’s, no doubt, one of the most important things we can think about?

I’m still not sure what’s more important to consider: the meaning of life or the purpose of life. Will one lead to the other?

By the way, when I suggested that The Caregivers might be a hybrid band instead of a cover band, I looked it up. There’s a band called Hybrid. They’re a cover band. Who says the music industry has to make sense?

There was also an English band, back in the 90’s, called The HyBIRDS. That might be because in the 90’s nobody could spell. They did originals, with songs like “24.” Maybe it was a sequel to the Miley Cyrus song, “23” but that was in 2013, so 24 would have to be a prequel to 23. Hybird did another numbered song called “Seventeen,” which, for some reason, they decided to spell out. Another mystery.

I thought it would be a great idea to have a band named The Numbers and just give every song a number, starting with 1, of course, and just number your songs in order. Okay, not a great idea, but a lazy idea. Then anytime you need to tell someone how many songs you’ve recorded, you’ll always know without counting. Except one song, which you would call “It” so people can say, “Play It by the Numbers.”

And, yes, I looked it up: There was a band out of Kent, Ohio, called The Numbers back in the early 70s. They didn’t record a song with a number, but they did an album called Twenty. It was their 4th album. If I take on these mysteries, I’ll never get to the meaning and purpose of life.

So, then I thought, okay, how about a band called The Book that does a song called “It.” Then you can play It by The Book. Well, you’re probably way ahead of me by now. Yes, there is a band called The Books, but as far as I know, they haven’t recorded “It” yet, but they do have a song called “I Didn’t Know That,” which …. I didn’t know.

I also still don’t know the meaning of life or its purpose. I just feel I should spend more time thinking about it. Maybe while I listen to some music.