The following sentence: “There but for the grace of you go I”  is a line from Paul Simon’s beautiful “Kathy’s Song“. 

And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain
Weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain
There but for the grace of you go I

- Paul Simon (Listen to it here)

I always gathered from the context that it’d mean something like; I can’t do without you, but I never really knew what exactly this sentence meant. I just figured it was beautiful either way. But one of those days came, like they do, that I decided I was going to know its meaning. Here’s the answer:

“There but for the grace of God goes John Bradford”

According to wikipedia John Bradford was an English Reformer and martyr best remembered for his utterance, “‘There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford.” The words were uttered by Bradford while imprisoned in the Tower of London, when he saw a criminal going to execution for his crimes.

What Bradford meant is that if it hadn’t been for the grace of God, it would have been him, John Bradford being executed that day. Simply stated, he counted his blessings and figured that the Almighthy God was looking out for him. He owed his blessings to God. 

These words, spoken by Bradford, (without his name), are still very commonly used today to express one’s blessings compared to the fate of another. (From the “Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins” by Robert Hendrickson, Facts on File, New York, 1997)

Back to Paul Simon

If it wasn’t for you (for your grace) that would be me over there… dying like the raindrops

Apparently, I am not the only one who favours this particular sentence. It’s the beauty and both the problem of the Internet. Someone else has always spoken your thoughts before you have.