The Time Between the Lightning and the Thunder

Cruising around my usual online haunts, I see the near-total obsession everyone has with the election... Facebook and IM statii make mention, conversations that normally don't pertain to politics in any way (baseball, parenting, finances) have gone off-topic to all-election all the time.

In just over 48 hours we're going to have a pretty good idea if this all works out or once again goes to shit in the final moments. We're heading into the time between the lightning and the thunder.

I love that image, as it comes from an (I think still) unreleased song by David Wilcox. The song tells a sad story, that captures perfectly that moment after something major shifts - something that can never go back to what it was before - and the time it takes for it to sink in and become part of a new reality. Hoo boy.

The time between the lightning and the thunder,
The time to wait before her fate arrives.
She looks out at the sky and starts to wonder
If a miracle might let it pass her by.

The time it takes the pain of it to reach her,
The moment that her world is blown apart.
The wisdom in the silence there to teach her,
His time had been this precious from the start.

The bullet changes everything and nothing.
Gunshots will echo down the block.
This life, this could have been something...
The door that he was running for was locked.

Chorus:
She's in the time between the lightning and the thunder,
Before the shock can hit that this is real.
The disbelieving spell she's falling under,
And the time it takes before her heart can feel.

She says:
Oh my love...
It's all right...
I'm right here...
You're just asleep now.
Oh my love...
Here's my coat...
You're so cold...
Beside the street now.

The time it takes to die in some old western
Is time enough to tell where gold is hid.
Time enough to answer one last question,
Pass the map and compass to the kid.

But this time there is nothing like that virtue.
Just stillness in the heart that used to beat.
The darkness that she is falling into
Is spreading on the pavement at her feet.

Chorus:
She's in the time between the lightning and the thunder,
Before the shock can hit that this is real.
The disbelieving spell she's falling under,
And the time it takes before her heart can feel.

She says:
Oh my love...
Here's my coat...
You're so cold...
Beside the street here.
Oh my love...
It's all right...
I'm right here...
You're just asleep here.

The time between the lightning and the thunder.
The time between the lightning and the thunder.