Love is a Banquet

Man, there were a lot of days when I was a bachelor - probably too many - when I would sit alone, listen to music, drink a few beers, and pontificate about what was wrong and right about life.

I still do it, but not nearly enough - tonight we were scheduled for a Christmas party and I threw a little Bruce on as I got myself dolled-up.

For those of you who know me, that was a good laugh, right?

For those of you who don't - it took twenty-five seconds.

Anyway, the first Bruce song playing was Because the Night - a song he gave away to Patti Smith - and she made it a hit - Bruce sang it afterwards and made it good. The version I was listening to was sung along with Michael Stipe of REM and the part of the song that got me was - "Love is a Banquet at which we feed."

What kills me about the line is that love is certainly a banquet, but only if we choose to do so - it is so easy to forget about the banquet right in front of us. We can certainly blow off feeding at the trough if we want to dwell on the negative in life.

I've always been of the belief that life can become cumbersome and downright aggravating at times, but that the big picture is what serves the purpose for all of us.

There are so many people who screw things up, and then with self-knowledge in hand understand that they blew it, but it is those of us who see the forest before the trees that understand that what is important is really important.

I had listened to Because the Night about a million times and never really heard the line that Love is the Banquet at which we feed.

Thank God it takes me twenty-five seconds to get ready to go out.