What's in a name?

You may be wondering why I decided to call this blog "Barley Fields". Perhaps you were able to guess from the tagline that the title derives from the popular Sting song "Fields of Gold". The quote is taken from this verse:

Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold

The song, bittersweet as it is, always reminds me of perhaps the last time our group of friends was all together for a substantial period of time: the summer after we graduated from high school and before we left for college. We spent many an evening that summer in the car, wandering the winding back roads of Washington County, passing the old farm fields as the sun set. We had no place to go, but we went there together. It reminds me of that saying about the journey being more important than the destination. Those were great times.

Now, as a new father, I feel a sense of the proverbial torch being passed to the next generation. Our time to "run as the sun goes down" without the weight of the world on our shoulders may be over, but surely we will find joy in seeing our own children laughing and playing among the fields of gold.