Two lovely women

Candle in the Wind; Bernie Taub, lyrics; Elton John, composer, piano and vocal

I have won a few piano competitions and a couple of talent contests in my time. But when it comes to submitting my name in a drawing, I have only won once. I went to a community Halloween party and came closest to guessing how many M & M’s they had put in a big jar. I was off by only two M & M’s. My prize was every ten-year-old boy’s dream: a ruby-red, fake cut-glass, two-piece candle holder. My friends went home with cap-guns, toy dump trucks, giant candy bars, walkie-talkies and stuffed Snoopy’s. I got a rock … I mean a candle holder. A candle holder. Who would bring a candle holder as a prize to a Halloween party? I think Mom has the candle holder, now. And I think about the whole incident approximately every thirty-four years.

I have nothing to add to the stories of Marilyn Monroe and Princess Dianna of Wales but to say that they were made to live lives of glitter and glamour. I would bet a king’s ransom that both of these profoundly beautiful women would argue that “that’s not living … that’s just posing.” How many of us would be able to withstand the enormous pressures and scrutiny imposed upon the beautiful and famous by an “adoring” public who not only expect, but demand, elegance, attraction and charm every minute of the day?

Lyricist Bernie Traub does magic with the metaphors of a candle as a life lived and the sputtering flame as the tortured soul inside. His sensitivity to the greatness beyond the beauty gives credence to the notion that both of these wonderful women had much more to share with the world than the single dimensional features of which nobody seemed to get enough.

I don’t have any Elton John albums. I’m sorry that I don’t because I really like his music and his piano playing. Maybe I’ll win one in a drawing. Yeah, right.

Credits: To Mars, Incorporated, for making M&M’s. Hey, why did you stop making the Crispy M&M’s? They were awesome!!!