Borderline

I bought Chris DeBurghs album in a store many years ago.  I bought it for the purpose of listening to Lady in Red which I always thought was a beautiful song. On playing the album and first listening to “Borderline” I remember being overwhelmed by the music and lyrics that I cried. At this moment in time I can’t remember what was happening in my life to warrant so a reaction but I can still feel the emotional outcry.

Borderline can be directly interpreted as a soldier heading for a war and leaving his loved one behind. The song captures their final moments together as he prepares to cross the border into the conflict. It is about the parting and the pain of watching someone you love walk away. In the son the “borderline” symbolises the border between war and peace, border between two countries or the line between love and separation.

There are many thresholds in life we encountered from leaving home, parenthood, retirement or a conversation that changes your perspective. One of the most difficult and emotionally challenging thresholds is that between life and death, being present and then gone forever.

Death doesn’t always follow the order we expect. When you lose someone at a young age you live your life like a jigsaw with a missing piece, the image is unfinished.  

Through the lens of an elderly person losing their partner can be a border that was always in sight. As we age, we know life has a finish line, death is not unexpected.  Irrelevant of religious beliefs many of us hope for an afterlife.  

As I write this today, we lost our dog of 10 years, tomorrow will be different.

Goodnight Jess!

All videos, images and sound were sourced from Shutterbox.