Dad’s Message: You Can Close Your Eyes

Some holiday habits turn into traditions. That’s not always a good thing. Like waiting until a couple of days before Christmas to write some six dozen cards for family and friends. There was one nice positive to it this year, though – I got to watch about five hours of YouTube concerts while signing, licking and stamping.

James Taylor, one of the best-selling recording
artists of all time, ushered in pop music’s
singer-songwriter era in the 1970s.

One of those concerts was the BBC’s James Taylor: In Concert, a 1970 set recorded before anyone knew who he was. Just JT and his guitar. He ended the set with a song he had just completed but had not yet recorded. I have always considered “You Can Close Your Eyes” the quintessential love song, perfect in its universality and simplicity.

Well the sun is surely sinking down
But the moon is slowly rising
And this ol’ world must still be spinning ‘round
And I still love you.

I’ve heard various recorded versions of it scores of times, and heard him perform it live more than a dozen times. But it was never a song that made the radio playlists. I remember hearing it on the radio only once. And that one time gave the song a whole new meaning for me.

Tony Casella played for the Syracuse Cyclones
softball team that went to the Senior Softball
World Series in the 1980s.

I was back home in Syracuse, driving alone. I flipped on the car radio and there it was. I was stunned. The timing was mind-boggling. You see, I had just pulled out of St. Mary’s Cemetery after burying my father.

It won’t be long before another day
We’re gonna have a good time
And no one’s gonna take that time away.
You can stay as long as you like.

Tony Casella died nearly 20 years ago. His death was sad, but not tragic. He was a retired factory worker who had always been so strong, so powerful, so active and athletic. But lung cancer had robbed his vitality over his last few years.  It was time and he knew it. Yet, he spent zero time “getting right with God.” He didn’t have to. He was always right with God. That’s just how he lived his life.

When his health began failing, Tony
Casella didn’t need to “get right
with God;” he always lived
his life that way.

But Dad and I weren’t close. Yes, his life was a rich example that many people – including me – learned from. But he kept his own counsel. Like most Italian immigrant kids of his generation, that was his comfort zone, so I was okay with keeping my questions to myself.

Hearing that song at that moment reminded me it’s impossible for any of us to ever leave anything unsaid. That door never closes. Our “friends above” are always there. Their love for us never ends. They know, better than we do, the things in our hearts that never crossed our lips. It’s one more example that the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of everlasting love. And that’s why JT’s signature love song was so appropriate.

So close your eyes.
You can close your eyes, it’s all right.
I don’t know no love songs
And I can’t sing the blues any more.
But I can sing this song
And you can sing this song when I’m gone.

You Can Close Your Eyes lyrics © Emi Blackwood Music Inc., Country Road Music