So Much Has Happened To Me, That I Don't Understand

... I remember being 5 years old, following your footsteps on the beach as I tried to learn to Walk Like a Man

Thanks Bruce, for that little snippet of father/son growing up thoughts off the great record Tunnel of Love. Named after one of those great rides in all those old amusement parks that used to dot the Jersey Shore.... or wait, is it instead a reference to his own life? "c'mon baby cuddle up, it's just the three of us - you, me and all those things were so scared of." In short order, very short order, our dear friend Bruce went from getting married for the first time to getting divorced, there's that roller coaster tunnel of love ride for you. I bought that record in 1987, I was living out in Denver, Colorado. Had me a new wife so I was entering into that marriage thang. Bought the record (that's right, they still came in black vinyl WAY back then people), came home to that fine apt at Fox Ridge, and put that record on. Laid on the living room floor and listened and thought a little bit. Hmmmmmm...., either old Bruce's marriage is coming apart, or he is writing completely in the 3rd person. It was the former, not the latter.

Life, life, the crazy ride of life. You may want to hold on tight, and you may want to put a seat belt on, and that's just for the relationships part of your life. You didn't really think life travels in a mostly linear, predictable path did you? The great Winston Churchill they say jay-walked through life, taking a rather circuitous path that did not always seem to make sense to the nay-sayers. Neil Young (kind of different than Winston Churchill, kind of different from a lot of folks) wrote "Heart of Gold", got some big radio airplay, folks thought it was kind of popular and mainstream. Old Neil said, "I had come on out to the highway for a while, where most everyone else was at, but I soon headed back to the ditch, where I belonged and the people I met were much more interesting." All the real learning and all the real fun may very well happen when you are off the beaten path, and kind of weaving and wandering. You can do this by reading books and physically never leaving your house, you can do this by getting married and having kids (you will learn a lot and see places you never dreamed you'd see), or you can also do it by heading to places like the Amazon over spring break and go on zip lines that are about 8 zillion stories above the canopy of the Amazon. Take your pick.

This blog post is a riddle, it's a metaphor, it's a similie. It may seem to travel in a circle, or not even that predictable a path. What does it mean? What is the hidden meaning? What is the point? Like most of Bob Dylan's songs, it means whatever you think it means -- to you and your life at any given time. Those songs are like perpetual or virtual maps to your soul. They will serve you well forever, no matter where you are on the journey. Because as you change, and your life changes, how you access the song, how you access the maps, will also bend and twist and turn and change. Who would want to follow a static map anyway? You'd always be in the same place, and you wouldn't be able to tell if you were at the beginning or the end. That map of 20 years ago that say's baseball on it could lead you right to the front door of the friggin' Metrodome, when instead starting Monday at 3pm, all the action is down a few blocks at Target Field. That map of 20 years ago may have led you to give up on love, to become cynical, to never put yourself or your heart out there again, but then you would not have had that beautiful, rich part of your life known as the 2nd wife and those 3 kids that fill your soul (Bruce) with love and happiness, just like Al Green said.

Because the new map, the vibrant, fully alive map say's - "keep trying, keep pushing on, keep living, keep looking around the corner for the next challenge, move toward the light, lift your spirits higher and higher, love will take you there, peace will take you there." And oh hey p.s. there sometimes weary travelers, have a big, loving, thankful heart as you go for all the blessings in your life, and oh one other thing please. Keep your eyes and ears open, you just may learn something along the way, and then you won't have to double back on the path you already traveled to relearn the same old lessons. Instead, you will be fully capable of getting to HIGHER GROUND. And Mama, that's where all the fun is, out where she was blinded by the light......