A Life That is Led is No More Than a Token

".....Who’ll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why....."

Propers to Midnight Oil. The first notes of their song, "Blue Sky Mine," would be a great ring tone for incoming business calls. Aussies just rock. The lyrics to the song are deceptively layered, "If I yell out at night, there's a reply of bruised silence." And the opening harmonica goes right through me, and makes me jump out of my skin. It's a very rare riff that induces an electric surge that is broadcast from my brain and forwarded to every cell like a bolt.

The top line is very endearing to me. "A life that is led is no more than a token." The image that first comes to mind is the song's hypothetical protagonist. As an employee of the Blue Sky Mining Company, he is completely dependent on their largesse. He survives on little more than faith and hope, singing, "hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night."

And he's got it relatively good, because he's middle management. He could be the foreman, trying to explain macro-economic conditions to his crew of miners. Among other issues, the Blue Sky Mining Company has no health plan, "I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine." He wonders, "if the ... company won't come to my rescue.... who's gonna save me...?"

He works all day at the mine, alongside his men. "Still I walk up and down at the Blue Sky Mine." He is conscious of the machinations of upper management, saying "The candy store paupers lie to the shareholders." He understands the plight of his men, and even empathizes with them, recognizing that, "some have sailed from distant shores." The empathy vaporizes when referring to the company in the collective, declaring that, "The Company takes what the Company wants."

This is a sensitive man of positive ethos. The song bridges the simple dignity of the working man with the highest aspirations of us all. "The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine." He understands that the company views him as a consumable expense, or a depreciating asset. He is able to transcend the vulgar course of the day by sweating his "brow," or his brain. The only asset capable of transcending depreciation. The oxidation of the physical body is inevitable. One's consiousness can be channeled into pure energy. Eternal appreciation within the ether.....