A Bridge Called Garfunkel

The first time I heard “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was around the same time I was learning not to trust other humans. For me, that was the age of four. My knowledge of simile still mingled with the literal. Hence, an image was formed that remained for all time–Art Garfunkel stretched over two pointed cliffs over hurricane waters.

The meaning wasn’t completely lost in my young brain. Once my siblings informed me which one was Garfunkel, I considered this physically fascinating man my friend. He resembled a tree more than a bridge, but he remained in bridge pose when I thought of him. He said he would be there for me in good times and bad–that much, I understood from the song–and no one I knew personally was quite as committed to that role.

He might have been my first crush if my heart weren’t already set on David Cassidy.

Years later in my years of attempting Zen meditation, the Garfunkel bridge image appeared again each time the tingsha began a sitting. The purity of the tingsha’s tone brought Garfunkel’s ethereal voice to mind, and I sat smiling at the bizarre memory from early childhood. Clearing my mind completely rarely worked for me, but following a strange thought sometimes brought minimal epiphanies.

One, it may be universal to place someone in a Garfunkel bridge role. Our fellow humans are well-meaning but unreliable. Only someone we do not know well can be ascribed such lofty qualities as undying loyalty. Art Garfunkel still wears a halo in my opinion with absolutely no evidence to support it. Maybe he’s the least devoted friend a person could have. The words he sang sounded convincing, and at the age of four, I bought it. I prefer not to know otherwise.

Later, I learned the lyrics were not even Garfunkel’s. Paul Simon penned the award-winning song. Knowing this, it is still Garfunkel stretched across the tumultuous waves. Such is the power of an image formed by desperate emotion in the formative years.

All this to say that when someone states, “Jesus is my rock” (or something similar) my first thought is to respond with, “Art Garfunkel is my bridge.”