One of the Good Guys

My melancholy of last night after the call from Mr. Match continues with me today. I'm sitting at work, listening to the soundtrack of "Closer than Ever" over and over again, laughing at "You Want to Be My Friend?" and marveling at "The Bear, The Tiger, The Hamster and The Mole".

But the song that resonates with me today is "One of the Good Guys." I think single men don't get it, don't get that all we single women want is a man with ethics, a man upon whom we can depend. We want a good guy.

Closer Than Ever
Music: David Shire
Lyrics: Richard Maltby, Jr.

One of the good guys
right here you see
one of the good guys
one of the nice ones
with sensible drives
what else could I be?
I'm one of the good guys
who play with their children
and dote on a pamper their wives.

But there was a night, in hawaii,
on a business trip
that my mind has suffused with a mystic glow
she was someone's friend
and she had this smile
we were on a beach
and we walked a while
and I watched the wind
billow in her hair
and I knew - we knew -
there was more to share
I could feel the ground start to go
like volcanoes starting to blow
and the waves were loud
we were all alone
we had left the crowd
not a soul would ever have known...

But I stopped and said "no".

'Cause that isn't me
I'm one of the good guys
one of the smart ones
whose virtue survives
firm as a tree
one of the good guys
who trades a flash of heat
to build a warmer fire
denies himself a treat
to shoot for something higher
and that's the part that's sweet
that only the good guys know.
That's not the end
as you suspected
time flipped some pages
I'm now forty-four
there's money to spend
the kids are in college
my wife's back in art school
we just bought a house at the shore

but sometimes at night in the stillness
lying wide away
as the wife I still desire sleeps by my side
I can feel the wash
of the perfumed air
as my mind is drowning
in billowing hair
and although I know
that my life is blessed
I am teased by thoughts
that it's second best
and the visions seethe in my head
of the lives that I could have led
they are all still there
I can change my fate
there's no time to spare
I must find them before it's too late

but I wake and say "no".

Oh hell, why defend
all of us good guys
strangling in plenty
yet whining for more
truth is, my friend
just between good guys
it's not which road you take
which life you pick to live in
whichever choice you make
the longing is a given
and that's what brings the ache
that only the good guys know.