Closing Time
Stumbled across some writing from back when Peanut was born in 2018. Dr. Sexypants and I had been dating all through her pregnancy and this was the first major life event we were going through together. The birth of a child is always stressful and emotional, and in this case it was doubly so.
This song was in my head when we went to the hospital for Peanut’s birth, which was a situation I never had envisioned myself being in again. Yet, there I was, and I couldn’t have been happier. I had found someone I never thought I would find and felt emotions that I never thought I would feel again, and over all of that was the feeling that this place I found myself in - physically, mentally, emotionally - was exactly where I needed and wanted to be.
The song was written to be a final curtain call for the band Semisonic - something to be played at the end of the night. However, as Dan Wilson wrote the song he realized that it meshed with the thoughts he had about the impending birth of his first child.
For nearly all of my life I’ve struggled with my emotions, for reasons known best to my therapists. Yet, this was a case where the lyrics put tears in my eyes as I thought about Peanut’s birth and everything that stretched out in front of him….and us.
Closing time, time for you to go out To the places you will be from Closing time, this room won’t be open Till your brothers or your sisters come
The song ends with one of my favorite quotes from the Greek Philosopher Seneca. A quote that seems to fit the theme that - as I write these words down - weaves through what I have written here.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end