The lyrics are inspired by 'The Little Duck' by Donald C. Babcock (1886–1986), a professor of philosophy at the University of New Hampshire. For more information about the author, see https://archives.unh.edu/repositories/3/resources/12 and https://archives.unh.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/2195. The first version of 'The Little Duck' was published in the article 'The Little Duck' in The New Yorker, Vol. 23, No. 33 (October 4, 1947), pp. 38–39. A second, different version was published in his poetry collection 'New England Harvest' (Indiana University Press, 1953). Many different versions can be found on the web. To my knowledge, none of the versions available online reproduces the original text verbatim; rather, they are differently modified excerpts from the third-to-last and last paragraphs of the original article. My version shifts the perspective to the duck itself and tweaks the tone just a little bit.😉 🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆 Here I am, riding the ocean a few hundred feet past the surf. I’m not a gull—let’s keep standards; gulls are far too loud for this vibe. I’m nothing but a simple duck, cuddled safely into the swells. Am I cold? - Not in the slightest. Am I thinking all things over? Oh, you bet your life I am. This massive, heaving Atlantic stretches out far under my feet. And honestly? I’m part of it. I sit right down in all of it. I rest in it, I rest in it. Someone might look at me and think I might be just meditating, You might assume I don't have much going on up between the eyes to be a real philosopher. But I’ve got poise. And let’s be real, that is half the battle won. I can rest while the Atlantic does its heavy, mighty lifting, simply because I rest in it. Do I know the right dimensions of this ocean? - Probably not. But let's be real, neither do you! The only real difference is, I realize the weight of it. So what do I do with all that existential dread? I sit right down in all of it. I rest in it, I rest in it. I repose in the immediate as if it were infinity - because it basically is. I’m part of all this boundless sea, by simply easing into it, just letting it touch my feathers. I like my life. I might not know much about the grand scheme of things, but if you’d just stop and watch, I can teach you everything you will ever need to know. I sit right down in all of it. I rest in it, I rest in it. I sit right down in all of it. I rest in it, I rest in it. I always have. I always will. I always will. I always will.
