Are you ready to go on a little trip? Traveling Jack is getting warmed up now, stretching a little bit here and there. He has some ideas, oh yes he does. Here are a few excerpts from existing fragments and some music that might go with them.
Tunnel Of Love“ Bruce Springsteen
The stormy weather matches my mood. It fluctuates between pensive and irritated. Flashes of light streak across the sky followed by deep booming noises. It reminds me of places past and present. Twenty-five years ago I walked down the streets of Jerusalem and watched a soldier react to the sound of dynamite exploding.
He threw my friend upon the ground and brought his weapon to his shoulder, eyes scanning the highway for signs of danger.
Seventeen years ago violent shaking woke me from a restless slumber. Women and children screamed, car alarms shrieked, glass broke and the earth issued this incredible rumble. For a moment I feared that I would be thrown from my bed and then the moment had passed.
You are out there somewhere. You were always out there. When I walked those streets of Jerusalem and made plans to leave America you were living your life elsewhere. And again you were there when the earth shook and I wondered if this was the moment when the ground would open up and swallow my home.
There has never been a time or moment that you weren’t there. Only moments of ignorance and lack of awareness. You weren’t on my radar or a gleam in my eyes. Perhaps you were a dream that I never wanted to believe in. A dream because I didn’t believe that someone like you was out there.
It is funny in an odd sort of way. I can hear you telling me that you’ll never forgive me for not finding you sooner. I can hear you calling my name.
Visions of Paradise“ Mick Jagger
It is no secret that I have spent more than a few minutes thinking about you, wondering what you are doing and who you are doing it with. If I listened to the experts you’d never hear a word from me or about me. I’d be nothing more than a ghost in time, a memory of someone you once knew.
And if my past was any guide than that is how it would have gone down. We would have said whatever it is two people say to each other before they leave and then I would have walked out of your life and found whatever was waiting for me. That is how it had always gone before so it was more than a little shocking to me that it didn’t happen now.
But who am I kidding, this thing we share has never been conventional, ordinary or normal. It has always been something more. A moment in time that never yellows with age or withers with time. I don’t have to close my eyes to see.
And So it Goes“ Billy Joel
I can’t remember the last time I signed into the good old Instant Messenger and there you were. I wondered if it was a sign or just coincidence.
Anne Stacey. There you were. A little picture of your smiling face flashed up at me and I smiled back. For a moment I just stopped and stared. Watched and wondered what to do. You told me to give you some space and I had done that. But the truth for both of us is/was that space is a funny term.
Throughout the years there have been a few brief moments where we felt that we needed some time away from each other. Moments of anger and or frustration. Moments of confusion when we tried to catch our breath and figure it all out. But throughout it all we always found that it was impossible to completely forget the existence of the other.
It is a hard thing to explain, but we always feel better when we allow the contact. And when we are separated intentionally or otherwise we have a tendency to seek the little things that connect us. There is a comfort in those things. We passed the point many years ago when…â€
Nights In White Satin“ The Moody Blues
We’re standing on the balcony staring out at the sunset. You’re barefoot wearing nothing but that sun dress I like. I am in my usual shorts and a t-shirt. Our drinks rest on the table next to us while dolphins play in the sea below us. Great splotches of orange, red, blue and magenta are painted against the sky. Your hand fits perfectly inside of mine and I wonder if I have ever been so content with holding hands. A silent smirk creeps across my face and I catch you staring at me. I know you. I know that look. You want to know what I am thinking but I remain silent.
You look at me again and I raise my eyebrows and smile. In return you give me that look that says that you are somewhere in between content and exasperation. I try not to smirk. I tamed you when no one else could. You know it and I know it.
Bookends– Simon & Garfunkel
I once knew two liars.
A girl and a boy who came of age during a time when science was considered truth and magic was considered to be the province of con men, charlatans and snake oil salesmen.
The two of them grew up in separate towns, went to separate schools and for a very long time lived separate lives.
Lives that were filled with the normal ups and downs and experiences people have. They loved and lost and lived and laughed.
All of these things were done apart from each other which made perfect sense because they grew up in separate worlds and had no reason to be aware of the existence of the other until the time came when they had no reason not to.
The intersection between their lives turned their worlds upside down and inside out. It forced them to reconsider all they once knew as true and made them question all they thought they were as individuals.
Had they lived during the age of magic they wouldn’t have questioned any of these things. They would have accepted the things their hearts knew as truth even when their heads questioned them.
But they didn’t grow up during the age of magic so they relied upon what they knew to be true science.
Thank You– Led Zeppelin
She Saved My Heart
Those four words should be enough. They should be enough for any person or so the Greek poets might say because some of them love their tragedies.
They love a hero with a tragic flaw. They love to tell a story about magic and magnificence destroyed by some simple and obvious flaw.
But there are other poets and other writers who dare to paint a different picture. Ones who understand that a heart can be broken and rebuilt many times and that there is more magic in the night sky than that exposed by small slivers of moonlight.
Some dare to walk upon the long and winding road because they know they are the kind of person who takes the long way home.
Those who dare to be more, to have more and to do more have to accept the burden of walking through the fallow fields as well as the green. The only way to get to the other side is to go through.
And once you accept that you survived the moments that you thought would stop you in your tracks and understand how to read the map upon the scars, well then you are on your way, aren’t you.
I have gone to the place where fire meets water not knowing what it is I seek or expect to find. Gone solely because I follow a path only I can see while listening to a song only I can hear.
Such is the way of the world but few people know this to be true. Some ask why and all I can offer is that not everyone walks their path with their eyes wide open and heart ready to hear the song only it can recognize.
Maybe it is because to be so naked is to risk devastation or maybe it is nothing of the sort.
One can pay Charon’s price to cross the River Styx in search of the person who sings their song but very few will risk never finding their fellow minstrel because the consequences of failure are too dire for their hearts to handle.
And there are those who will talk the talk and pretend to walk the walk only to reach the edge of the abyss and fear what happens if they should fall over the side.
I suppose it only fair to say that my pilgrimage to the place where fire and water meet only happened because I was one of those who took the plunge into the abyss.
But don’t let me fool you into thinking I did so with intent or desire because no such thing took place.
I slipped, tripped and fell.
It wasn’t an easy fall either.
My body slammed into every outcropping of rock and bounced off of every prickly bush down the side of the night covered hill.
I’d tell you the fall made me mad and that it made me hard. I’d tell you it made me more determined to do what I had set out to do but I don’t know what that is anymore.
Now I just follow that path that only I can see and I don’t worry about where it leads because there is joy in the journey.
It matters not to me whether anyone believes that because I am not selling my thoughts or trying to ransom my heart. I am just living the life I have hard and fast.
It is all I know how to do.
Rock and Roll– Led Zeppelin
Or maybe it is for none of those reasons. Maybe it is for all of those reasons. I really don’t spend much time thinking about how and why because this is not a math problem or some sort of scientific formula that must be followed or needs to be answered.
If I had to answer the question I would tell you to shut up and kiss me. Stop thinking and do. And when you did you would remember and you would know.
You would know that love is wild and that love is real. You would know that sometimes it is like standing in the eye of the storm. Everywhere you look there is wind, rain and lightning, except for that one place that we are standing together holding hands.
And sometimes you find yourself standing inside the storm and find yourself searching for shelter but if you can hold on long enough you always find it in the same place it was before.
Gold Dust Woman– Fleetwood Mac
Some people never know the moment.
Some people know the moment and lose it never to capture it again.
Some who lose it seek second chances because that is what has to be done.
And some just sit in silence and none can say what it is they think upon, about or remember.
Heart and soul is more than just a man or just a woman.
Editor’s Note: Couldn’t sleep on a Saturday night so I adapted a piece I put together here.
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