There are moments of existential folly, when the human mind and heart and will become allies in self-assertion. Instead of humility before the mystery of life there is a defiant egotism, and in place of a healthy realism about the significance of any one life, there is the strident claim to self-importance.The news that 30% of people plan to have Frank Sinatra crooning "I did it my way" at their funeral service merely confirms in our cultural malaise, a fading capacity for wonder, humility, gratitude and a sense of something bigger than ourselves. To read the lyrics in the clear light of a frosty day, they come across as what they are – the illusory self congratulation of one who never knew moments of transcendent questioning, the self preoccupation of one who never paid attention to those experiences that put us all in our place, the ignorance of one who ignored the many intimations of both our mortality and our glory as creatures made in the image of God.
To have them sung, at our own explicit instruction, at a funeral service for ourselves would be the height of hubris, if it weren't so ludicrously comical. That's why I called it existential folly. It is the denial of that deeper angst and tragedy that is deeply embedded in us, and felt as longing and joy seeking fulfilment, not in self-congratulation or self-illusion. But in the recognition that though we are dust, we are glorious dust; and though we will die, yet life is gift for which to be grateful, and yes, 'for which he kneels', in grateful and purposeful strength, rather than stand in selfish, obsessive pride.
That said, I read Ecclesiastes, and find much of this man's cynicism, worldly wise shrewdness, his poignant attempt to put his name up in lights across the night sky, is reflected in this remarkably precise orchestration of human longing and frustration. But Ecclesiastes knows how to kneel – 'Thou hast put eternity in the human heart'. And that is what the song lacks – a sense of eternity, transcendence, mystery, and therefore hopefulness.
Me – I'm having Gabriel's Oboe!
And now, the end is here
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I traveled each and ev'ry highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way
Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way
Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way
I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say, not in a shy way,
"Oh, no, oh, no, not me, I did it my way"
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!
Yes, it was my way
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