The Reach

A couple of weeks ago I was in need of repainting my front porch. It was that time again and had probably been that time for more than 2 years. None the less I was taking charge and giving my deck a facelift. I gathered the necessary tools; paint brushes, roller trays, rags and paint stirrers.  The weather was so nice and I knew I was in for a long afternoon so I asked my daughter if I could borrow her MP3 speaker so I could enjoy some music while painting. I knew it would help keep my mind of the mundane task at hand and keep me entertained for a while. Thankfully she agreed and so armed with music I headed off to do my chore.

As I scrolled through my mp3 player, I saw that I had over 1000 songs stored on my MP3 player. Decisions, decisions! What should I listen to? What style? What was going to help me the most in completing my task? After all, what music I was going to listen to was obviously more important to me than getting right to work. I had my priorities, you know. Then I noticed that my mp3 player had a “shuffle songs” option I hadn't noticed before. It was a function that would randomly select from the songs stored on my mp3 player.

After a while of painting, a song started playing called “The Reach” by Dan Fogelberg. The Reach was released on Fogelberg’s 1981 album titled “The Innocent Age.” I had owned this album years ago and although the song sounded a bit familiar it had pretty much been lost to my memory. The album was released when I was a senior in high school, or in other words back in the days when I wondering what the hell I was going to do with my life as sometimes I still do. 

Even though I was a confused teenager, music was very much a part of my life. I was a big fan of acoustic singer/songwriters so Dan’s music was right up my alley. He was a very crafty versatile songwriter and I enjoyed all of his music. Dan had seen a meteoric rise in fame just a few years before with the release of his mega hit “Longer”. With him at the height of his popularity, he became introspective of the fact he was turning 30 and he wanted show it through his music. I didn’t know it then but it seems in retrospect that Dan was to become the last in a great line of 70’s male singer songwriters that would soon move over for hair bands and punk rockers.

The Reach was never released as a single and I doubt got any radio play. It was simply the last song on side 3 of a double album and probably went largely unnoticed by anyone other than Dan’s best fans. Maybe it was all in the timing, hearing the song now, verses hearing it in my youth that made me stop and take notice of the song as it came pouring out of the mp3 player. The melody grabbed me from the first note. The orchestration made the hair on my arms stand up and the lyrics pierced my soul. I could count on one hand the number of times a song had moved me in such a way.

As I stood there in awe of the song, I couldn’t help but think that there was something more for me in this song than just this moment. I asked myself, “What does this song have for me?” “Why am I so drawn to this song?” “What am I supposed to learn?” With these questions I decided to make the effort to learn all I could about the song and see if I couldn’t uncover the deeper meaning it seemed to have for me.

Upon my research I quickly learned the song was inspired by the Eggemoggin Reach, which is located between Sedgwick Maine and Deer Isle, Maine. A reach is a long body of water located between two bodies of land that lead’s out to sea and the Eggemoggin Reach was wedged between the Sedgwick shoreline and Deer Isle. This area, once known primarily for fishing, has become a place for the wealthy to enjoy yachting and sailing. Every year there is a famous Regatta that takes place there.

Deer Isle and The Reach had a personal appeal to Dan. He kept a home there and spent lot of time sailing on The Reach. It had become more and more of a home to him over the years, so much so that it is where he spent his final days before losing his life to cancer at the age of 56 in 2007. 

I had shared my affection of the song with my longtime best friend Tim Connolly who for a long time had ran a Dan Fogelberg internet bulletin board. (remember those) He provided me with the most eloquent explanation of the song’s deeper meaning that was too good not to share verbatim.  

The Reach is about recognizing that work and struggle are two of our main ways of gaining access to true understanding along with peace and happiness. So much of the song is about the unhappy events of the moment. 

The Northers will bluster and blow.
The wind brings a chill.
The morning will blow away as the waves crash and roll.
The days get so lonely and long.
The young boys are cold and complaining.
The lost and unchosen

Fogelberg doesn't paint a picture of pure enjoyment at all- it's effort, overcoming, sacrifice and more than anything else,  it's staring down the elements that try to conquer us. It is in this that the Reach teaches her ultimate lesson, one that can be felt to the depths of one's soul. The easy way isn't the best way.  

Without even using the word one can feel the brotherhood that is felt when all these people come together to do their jobs. You can feel the kinship, the unity and you know that it brings a closeness that can only be realized when people team up to do something worthwhile in overcoming difficult obstacles. The Reach is about finding within the rough personal endeavors that we face and the insight into knowing that's the only place we can really demonstrate responsibility, toughness and greatness.

In my friend’s eloquent dissertation of what is in my opinion Fogelberg’s finest work, I find I identify with that struggle. As I proceed towards ministry there will be ups, downs, highs and lows and all will have a lesson for me. And I will take from the experience all it has to teach, to the depths of my soul.

Here are the lyrics in their entirety and the you tube link to the song. 

The Reach (video)

It's Maine... And it's Autumn
The birches have just begun turning
It's life and it's dying 

The lobstermen's boats come returning
With the catch of the day in their holds
and the young boys cold and complaining
The fog meets the beaches and out on  the Reach it is raining --

It's father and son It's the way it's been done
since the old days
It's hauling by hand ten miles out from the land

where their chow waits
And the days are all lonely and long
and seas grow so stormy and strong but
The Reach will sing welcome as homeward they hurry along.

And the morning will blow away
As the waves crash and fall
And the Reach like a siren sings
as she beckons and calls
As the coastline recedes from view
And the seas swell and roll
I will take from the Reach
all that she has to teach
To the depths of my soul --

The wind brings a chill There's a frost on the sill
in the morning
It creeps through the door  On the edge of the shore
ice is forming
Soon the northers will bluster and blow
And the woods will be whitenedwith snowfall
And the Reach will lie frozen for the lost and unchosen to row --