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Days of Miracle and Wonder

 Paul Simon's "Graceland" is an "I Am" song--it's rueful and amused and optimistic. It is a grownup pop song. Like any artist, Simon sees the dissolution of a marriage as an opportunity. He takes a *literal* journey (to the South) while also taking an "inner" journey (to the truth or something like the truth). The external world is an echo of the interior world. When Simon alludes to "the cradle of the Civil War," he is talking about Abraham Lincoln, but he is also talking about the civil war that was his marriage, and he is talking about the war within his own soul.

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