Rick Butts: Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here Video

In this letter to a missed friend the writer is not being critical or condescending but asking for commiseration around the way that any of us can sell out and then wake up one day with the reality we reap around the choices we've sown.

When you trade hot air for a cool breeze (this is not a free trade - you give something up to buy that sweet air conditioning) you surrender a little bit more of your freedom.

Did you take a "walk on part in the war" (small perhaps even symbolic participation) for a "lead role in a cage."

And you think of your friend, bright and brimming with potential, and you see how you've both been changed and find yourselves far away. And since you both know what it's like - you share this common experience and understanding - you wish they were here with you - to comfort each other and perhaps rally for the next change.

Rick Butts

So you think you can tell,

Heaven from hell,

Blue skies from pain.

Can you tell a green field

From a cold steel rail

A smile from a veil,

Do you think you can tell?

Did they get you to trade,

Your heroes for guns,

Hot ashes for trees,

Hot air for a cool breeze,

Cold comfort for change,

Did you exchange,

A walk in part in the war,

For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish,

How I wish you were here.

We're just two lost ...souls swimming in a fish bowl,

Year after year.

Running over the same old ground,

Have you found,

The same old fears?

Wish you were here.