The windmills of my mind

3 min read

Anthony Peters, SwissInvest Strategist

Good morning – I shall be missing all of the market jollifications today as I am being taken away for my birthday – don’t ask - so I should have a fun day, even if you don’t. Before I left the office last night, I suddenly started to hum the tune of “The Windmills of Your Mind”, written by Frenchman Michel Legrand but with the English lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

The fact that it was the theme song for one of the greatest caper movies of all times, “The Thomas Crown Affair” starring Steve McQueen, is not the point but as we face the Eurozone crisis, the lyrics seem to sum up so much of what is going on in politics, the markets and in our heads:

Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

Like a snowball down a mountain

Or a carnival balloon

Like a carousel that’s turning

Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping

Past the minutes on its face

And the world is like an apple

Whirling silently in space

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind

Like a tunnel that you follow

To a tunnel of its own

Down a hollow to a cavern

Where the sun has never shone

Like a door that keeps revolving

In a half-forgotten dream

Like the ripples from a pebble

Someone tosses in a stream

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping

Past the minutes on its face

And the world is like an apple

Whirling silently in space

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind

Keys that jingle in your pocket

Words that jangle in your head

Why did summer go so quickly?

Was it something that I said?

Lovers walk along a shore

And leave their footprints in the sand

Was the sound of distant drumming

Just the fingers of your hand?

Pictures hanging in a hallway

Or the fragment of a song

Half-remembered names and faces

But to whom do they belong?

When you knew that it was over

Were you suddenly aware

That the autumn leaves were turning

To the colour of her hair? Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

As the images unwind

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind

See what I mean?