For All We Know | Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack
There is no promise on this earth, so temporal and abrupt is our time here. I often want life to be the opposite, for there to be a decisive clear permanence to the folds of life, but Hathaway’s deep drawn voice, a mixture of lament and relief for love, tells me that temporal is the only permanence we can experience. But love can still exist there. We should act on it. It should be spoken. And because there is no promise of tomorrow, love should be expressed now, always now. I notice, upon each listen, that “For All We Know” changes its message a little. In my first impression, my imagination conjured solely physical intimacy, but then I focused on “tomorrow may never come”, the reality of death, and suddenly intimacy took on every form and became this holistic love that I was inspired to express myself.
For all we know
We may never meet again
Before you go
Make this moment sweet again
We won't say goodnight
Until the last minute
I'll hold out my hand
And my heart will be in it
For all we know
This may only be a dream
We come and we go
Like the ripples of a stream
So love me, love me tonight
tomorrow was made for some
tomorrow may never come
for all we know
Source: Musixmatch
[Book of Delights pg.111 | No. 36 Donny Hathaway on Pandora]