It Ain't No Sin to Be Glad that You're Alive

Life is tough. Grief is tougher. The days spin by, but the emotions stay pretty much the same. The anger and the misplaced fear can take control when you least expect it, really. And the memories. The damn memories that make you happy and sad all at the same time.

Saturday morning I was out driving. It had been a rough week. Still sore. Still sleeping shitty. Still cognizant of the fact that there's baseball being played and the 27-Time World Champion Yankees have been dismissed from the proceedings.

Every day lately feeling as it were an exercise as a human doing rather than a human being. Pissed at myself for feeling that way.

Trying to keep my head above the rising tide. Thinking of turning 47 this week.

Forty-freaking-seven years old!

As luck might have it, E Street Radio was on when I sat down in the car. If you don't have Sirius-XM, you are really missing something great.

Penn from Penn and Teller was on and he told a story about meeting Springsteen after Bruce had attended one of their shows. It was interesting to me that Bruce didn't call for free tickets or special treatment. But Penn was a huge fan. He had security invite Bruce back to the dressing room after the show.

And Bruce went back and sat down. Penn finished his set and nearly passed out when he saw Bruce sitting in his dressing room, munching on some potato chips that were in a bowl in the center of the table.

Penn thought he'd have some fun.

"What are you doing in my dressing room?" he asked angrily.

To hear Penn tell the story, Bruce acted like a young kid in the principal's office.

"Security asked me to come back," Bruce said.

"Oh yeah," Penn said. "Did they tell you that it was all right to eat my f*&$ing potato chips?"

Of course, Penn went on to explain that they had a good laugh about it, but that when he yelled Bruce lowered the chip that was in his hand and placed it back in the bowl.

Then Penn, acting as the guest DJ, played his favorite Bruce song.

"Life is tough," he said. "I remember sitting in the audience in the days immediately following the death of my mother. Bruce played this song, and when he got to one particular line in the song, I remember weeping."

It ain't no sin to be glad that you're alive.

An uplifting moment on a dark, dreary, rainy day.

All just a day in a life of a human being.

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