1000 Acres
From the Album Special Days
The birds are greeting, the start of day
The trees have come alive
The mist is clearing in its sleepy way
Floating to the sky
The door opens, he steps outside
Takes a look around
The signs are good, the day will be kind
But peace can’t be found
Chorus
1000 acres is not that much
Compared to someone’s life
One man’s dream is another man’s prison
One will live, and one will survive
1000 acres is not that much
When the heart lies elsewhere
But 1000 acres is just enough
To trap you in its lair
This field where once worked a hundred men
Now there’s only one
The dreams of a father have been handed down
To a reluctant son
He climbs high into the monster machine
His heart left on the ground
Thinking of what he could have been
But for duty and family entwined
THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG
The title of this song came from a book I was reading with the same name about a farming family in Iowa, USA. In one of my many lives, I owned a squash club in Derby, England, where many of my members were farmers. I remember one of them being unhappy about being trapped by the only life he knew. He earned a good living and would inherit the farm, so although his life stretched out securely in front of him, it was not what he wanted to do. If the farm had gone bankrupt, he might have been forced into a different kind of life that might have made him happy, but the farm was doing well, and so security had trapped him.
For most of my working life, I lived in a state of insecurity. I never thought much about it as it was all I ever knew, but most of the good things that happened to me were consequences of insecurity. The few times I did feel secure, I felt quite uncomfortable, so maybe my actions forced me to abandon that security in search of new and exciting directions. Things always turned out well for me, but I have to say that I have now reached a time in my life where security is most welcome.
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