Life Got in the Way

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Since about the age of 8 or so, I have read book after book - all kinds - sports biographies, autobiographies, novels, short stories, true crime stories - anything and everything I can get my hands on really. I usually finish a book in just a couple of weeks - much shorter if it catches my attention. There have been a lot of days in my life when I dreamed about finishing whatever it was I was doing during the day so I could lie back and read.

I haven't been reading much lately. I have been working on the Joe Torre book for the better part of a month. I have a couple of books stacked up - books I'd been really looking forward to reading - just collecting dust for the time being.

Life got in the way and my mind didn't seem able to follow a story, or hell, even a simple lyric.

I woke this morning with a lyric in my head - Life strips away the dreams that we had planned.

I tortured myself trying to remember where I'd heard the line - I could hear the singer singing it, but I couldn't place the lyric.

An hour after waking, I figured out it was a Mellencamp line.

The dreams I had planned were filled with laughter, joy and undeniable happiness. They were all about food, family and fun.

I still have those dreams, of course, but they feel - well - stripped away somehow.

I tried to sing the next line of the song...remember...remember...

Life strips away the dreams that we had planned, but you are young and you are the future

Mellencamp - Minutes to Memories - I'd got it!

The next line?

Of course - So suck it up and tough it out and do the best you can.

I'd awaken with the reality of it all in one line and through the morning it came to me - thankfully Mellencamp hadn't stopped after the one brilliant line.

Tonight I feel like reading something.

Comments

Gag said…
read on my friend, read on.
11 June, 2009
Carrie Lynn Fazzolari said…
I've been there... no books, no movies, no conversation, nothing to get you through... you're on your own for a bit... been there. I am back there again... Mellencamp must have felt it too.
11 June, 2009
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