Harry Chapin - My Grandfather lyrics

My grandfather was a painter he, uh
Died at age eighty-eight he
Illustrated Robert Frost's first
Two books of poetry and he was looking
At me and he said, "Harry
There's two kinds of tired there's good
Tired and there's bad tired"

He said, "Ironically enough
Bad tired can be a day that you won
But you won other people's battles
You lived other people's days
Other people's
Agendas, other people's dreams and when it
Was all over there was very
Little you in there and when you
Hit the hay at night
Somehow you toss and turn -
You don't settle easy"

He said, "Good tired, ironically enough
Can be a day that you lost but you
Don't even have to tell yourself because
You knew you fought your battles, you chased
Your dreams, you lived your days and when
You hit the hay at night, you
Settle easy, You sleep the sleep of
The just and you can say, take me away"

He said, "Harry, all my life I've wanted to
Be a painter and I've painted god
I would have loved to have been more
Successful but I've painted
And I've painted, and I am good tired
And they can take me away"

Now there is a process in your and my lives
In the insecurity that we have about a prior
Life or an afterlife god
I hope there is a God, if He is - if He
Does exist He has a rather
Weird sense of humor, however
But let's just - but if there's a process
That will let us live our days
That will allow us that degree of equanimity
Towards the end, looking at that
Black implacable wall of death, to
Allow us that degree of peace
That degree of non-fear, i want in