Old Blue Eyes

Two nights ago I found myself sitting at the bar in a pseudo-Mexican place, solo. The reason: taco, beer and a shot of tequila for 1.5mil. I have started my second job this week, and I had been working for over 12 hours. The Chilean dinner meal is called "onces," and it generally consists of bread, tea, and maybe some cold cuts. I have been making a very concentrated effort to adjust to this. It's healthier, it's cultural, it's time spent with the host family, and so forth. But when I have had a long day, at the bottom of it all I am a norteamericana and I want dinner, dammit. Like a taco. And a beer and a shot of tequila. I'm telling you it was a long day.

Anyhow, I sat at the bar so as not to be accosted by any overzealous potential "friends." While I was eating, I was making notes about two of my new classes. The man sitting next to me kept glancing over. I can pull a pretty good ice queen when I want to. And I wanted to. So no conversation was exchanged for quite some time. Finally, though, he leaned over and completely surprised me.

He absolutely had to know the underlying meaning of the lyrics to Frank Sinatra's "My Way."

I have written here before about my host "father's" prediliction for this particular song (translated into Spanish, on repeat mode, at full volume, outside my door). I've never really gotten much out of Sinatra, but this man, like my host "father," found something completely unique and profound in this song. Not being an English speaker, however, he wasn't sure whether his interpretation of the lyrics was correct.

Now, the thing is, I have no idea. I have heard this song a million times, certainly, but I've never paid much attention to it. I know he sings, "I did it my way." That's about the extent of it.

The man at the bar, though (who I should add was not drunk in my estimation) was absolutely starry eyed. "Is it," he asked me, "that he can die at any moment because he has done what he needed in life?"

So, I pulled out my English major skills, ie. the art of bullshit. I confirmed the man's interpretation and added a bit of spin on it based off of the one sentence that I knew. ("Yes, true, because he never compromised his own idea of what was right no matter what other people told him....")

I have no idea what the song is really about. Maybe that's right, maybe it's completely not. But, my thought is, why on earth take away this man's interpretation which he has such an emotional attachment?

Anyhow, it's a story without a climax. But there it is.