Mulligan on Fire!
I don’t know about you, but I was a big Elton John fan in the 70’s and 80’s. One song in particular that always gave me chills as I listened—okay, and sang along—was Nikita. The lyrics describe a crush on an East German border guard he can never meet—someone with “eyes that look like ice on fire”. Could it be that a Mulligan was in order?
Reflecting on the disparity in the human condition, I always thought how cool it would be if one day those who lived under the iron fist of communism could get a Mulligan. Who could have predicted that just four short years later, on November 9, 1989, that wall would fall?
A crowd of West German citizens gathers at the newly created opening in the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz.
The year 2010 found me attending a Languages in the Media conference in Berlin. While walking along the grounds of the Brandenburg Gate on the former East Berlin side my Blackberry buzzed. It was an email from a business colleague in Moscow, Russia. Momentarily stunned, I marveled at the significance of what by then had become an everyday occurrence—communicating with another who was born behind the Iron Curtain, yet who now cherished the same freedom and values that I had long held dear. That my location in the very moment was in what had once been the shadow of the ominous Berlin Wall instantly caused me to think of these lyrics that had once haunted me as much as they had given me pause to yearn for the freedom of my brothers and sisters.
Such freedom was realized by humanity taking a Mulligan! A re-boot; a do-over; a second chance to get it right after decades of oppression and corruption on the backs of the average citizen.
To all of the Nikita’s out there, I would love to learn of any way that you were able to take full advantage of that Mulligan and pursue your dreams.
Cheers, to your life well lived!
Ice On Fire by Elton John
Nikita
from the 1985 album Ice on Fire by Elton John.
Lyrics by Elton John and Bernie Taupin
Hey, Nikita, is it cold
In your little corner of the world?
You could roll around the globe
And never find a warmer soul to know.
Oh, I saw you by the wall,
Ten of your tin soldiers in a row,
With eyes that look like ice on fire,
The human heart a captive in the snow.
Oh, Nikita, you will never know, anything about my home;
I’ll never know how good it feels to hold you.
Nikita, I need you so.
Oh, Nikita, is the other side of any given line in time
Counting ten tin soldiers in a row?
Oh, no. Nikita you’ll never know.
Do you ever dream of me?
Do you ever see the letters that I write?
When you look up through the wire,
Nikita, do you count the stars at night?
And if there comes a time,
Guns and gates no longer hold you in.
And if you’re free to make a choice,
Just look towards the west and find a friend.
Oh, Nikita, you will never know, anything about my home;
I’ll never know how good it feels to hold you.
Nikita, I need you so.
Oh, Nikita, is the other side of any given line in time
Counting ten tin soldiers in a row?
Oh, no. Nikita you’ll never know.
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