When he first came to the mountains his life was far away
On the road and hangin’ by a song
But the string’s already broken and he doesn’t really care
It keeps changin’ fast and it don’t last for long

He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below
He saw everything as far as you can see
And they say he got crazy once, and he tried to touch the sun
And he lost a friend but kept his memory

Now he walks in quiet solitude the forests and the streams
Seeking grace in every step he takes
His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand
The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake

Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear
Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend
Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more
More people, more scars upon the land

And the colorado rocky mountain high
I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky
I know he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly
Rocky mountain high ...

- John Denver (Rockey Mountain High, 1972)


In a cheery bright sunny day in October 1997, I was listening to one of John Denver's songs when the radio announced that he died in a plane crash. It was a private experimental kind of a plane: people say that there was a failure while switching fuel tanks.

Known for many good deeds outside entertainment industry, Denver seemed to take his cheery vision on the life even to his death. Good people die early.Many of his songs go alone with my kind of buddhist thinking: let be, relax and enjoy.

In a way, there is no other alternative: I'm old now. It was not much of a pleasure having to change the first digit of my age - which was a cool thing back in 1994. :)