Walking in the Valley A weekly column for those who live and walk in Silicon Valley by Barbara Dahlgren

For Auld Lang Syne Column for the week of January 5-11, 2003

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Doesn’t it strike you a wee bit funny that Americans usher in the New Year singing a Scottish song? There we are on New Year’s Eve singing, “For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne. We’ll take a cup of kindness, yet, for auld lang syne.” What the heck does that mean?

Well, “Auld Lang Syne” actually means “old long ago” and Scottish poet, Robert Burns, supposedly composed this little ditty. Some say he actually found the old song and restored it, adding some bits and pieces of his own. Whatever! The fact is that even with this knowledge you still can’t understand it, except for the part where we take a cup of kindness which most of us interpret to mean a good stiff drink. If you have enough of those you don’t care what the song means.

“Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?” Well should they? I don’t know. I have some people I’d like to forget. “Should old acquaintance be forgot in days of ‘old long ago?’” Beats me! Should they? “For auld lang syne, my dear” means for old long ago, my dear. How old long ago are we talking about here? Is it one year, two years, or ten years? “For auld lang syne.” This is repeated in case we didn’t get that we were actually talking about old, long ago the first time we sang it. “We’ll take a cup of kindness, yet.” Ah, the part we think we understand. Belly up to the bar everyone and have a couple of belts for “auld lang syne.”

We Americans love to sing songs we don’t understand. Witness the popularity of “Louie, Louie, oh no, we gotta go now...yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!" I don’t even think the Kingsmen know what it means and they’re the ones who sang it originally. Yet it has been the theme song of high schools, fraternities, sororities, and even a state. It’s been used in countless movies, advertising campaigns, and political rallies. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!” What about the song “Does anyone really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?” by Chicago. I don’t really care what time it is but I sing it anyway. And let’s not forget the “Horse With No Name” that’s in the desert feelin’ no pain by America. They had time to write a song but couldn’t give the horse a name? Go figure! And just who is that someone who left the “cake out in the rain?” Because “I don’t think that I can take it, ‘cause it took so long to bake it and I’ll never have that recipe again!” I only have three words to say to that. Buy a COOKBOOK! One of my personal favorites is “Drop Kick Me Jesus Through the Goal Posts of Life.” (Yes, it is a song!) The sentence structure is good but what does it mean?

One thing I’ve learned through the years is that I don’t have to fully understand everything to appreciate it. The Bible is like that, too. You don’t have to understand the book of Revelation to appreciate the fact that Jesus came and died for your sins. Salvation isn’t based on what you know as much as who you know and your belief in Him. Jesus!

So everyone sing the second verse with me. All together now!

“And there's a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o' thine,
And we'll tak a right guid willie-waught,
For auld lang syne.”

I guess that means Happy New Year, Louie! “We gotta go, now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!”

©January 2003

Be sure to visit this page every week to read the next edition of Walking in the Valley. You can write to the author at bdahlgren@wcgsouthbay.org.