Are the bones still good?

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

I don’t listen to a whole lot of today’s country music. I still think of country music as Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard… maybe going as “modern” as Garth Brooks and George Strait, so most of what you hear on Kix 106 isn’t for me.

But there’s a song from around five or so years ago by a singer named Maren Morris called, “The Bones.” It’s pretty good and it’s got a good message. I’ll give you the first verse and the chorus in case you’re unfamiliar with it or you haven’t heard it in a while…

We're in the homestretch of the hard times. We took a hard left, but we're alright.

Yeah, life sure can try to put love through it, but we built this right, so nothing's ever gonna move it.

When the bones are good, the rest don't matter. Yeah, the paint

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could peel, the glass could shatter.

Let it rain, ' cause you and I remain the same.

When there ain't a crack in the foundation, baby, I know any storm we're facing, will blow right over while we stay put.

The house don't fall when the bones are good, mmm…

Now if you keep on listening to the song, it’s pretty clear that the song is a metaphor for her relationship with her special someone, even though she’s singing about a house.

Pretty cool, right?

But honestly, if you just look at the first verse and chorus, you could make a strong camparison to the state of our nation. There are definitely some parallels that can be drawn between a rocky relationship and the things we are going through here in the U.S. Clearly, we’ve got problems.

And I’m not here to point fingers at Donald Trump or Joe Biden or anyone in particular.

I am here, though, to say that it’s not too late.

We have, in our Constitution, in our ideals and in our 250 years of American spirit, the capacity to overcome our current obstacles and come out of this era a better nation and a better people.

But, in order to do that, we are going to have to work on some things. The “foundation” is good, like in the song, but we definitely need to strip off several layers old ideas and start making new paths.