One of the music videos that played today while I was rowing seemed especially apt. The Windmills Of Your Mind, sung by Dusty Springfield.
The mind is always looking for entertainment, escape, meaning and freedom, among other things. And that remains true when a person is doing indoor rowing. In that respect, the lyrics of “The Windmills of Your Mind” seem relevant in their freely interpreted meaning, which will be fluid and different for every person who hears the song.
Some of the words of the song’s lyrics are:
“Round,
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel,
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain,
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on its face
And the world is like an apple
Spinning silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind!”
Did any of the words mean anything in particular to you? To me, they evoke countless images and many recollections. For example, the phrase “….wheel within a wheel…” reminds of a famous verse from the first chapter of The Book of Ezekiel: “The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” (verse 16). And it reminds of the times long ago when I first read that verse, and other contexts within which that verse was spoken of or referenced.
Today’s rowing was 30 minutes online but solo, preceded by a short warmup and followed by a brief warm down.
Happy rowing among the windmills of your mind.