It Is For You

My nephew Johnny sent me a text on Tuesday evening.

“You listen to this?” He asked.

He had included the cover photo of the coming Springsteen record, ‘Letter to You.’

“Of course!” I answered, “but only two songs so far. We have to wait until Friday.”

“I love ‘Ghosts’,” Johnny wrote.

He’s 18-years-old. He lost his Dad. Bruce releases a song that is so intensely beautiful in the face of loss.

“It’s just your ghost, moving through the night, spirit filled with light. I need, need you by my side, your love and I’m alive.”

“I have a theory,” Johnny said. “I think that my Dad put those words in Bruce’s mind so he’d sing them and help me.”

I dropped the phone.

“Bruce always seems to write the record we need to hear,” I answered.

“I’m blasting it!” Johnny wrote. “Can’t wait until Friday.”

Then.

Wednesday afternoon my phone rang:

“Mom”.

That’s a call that’s always answered.

“Cliff, I know you know but Bruce is on Colbert tonight. I can’t wait to see him. I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

Mom became a huge Bruce fan after we played her the song that Bruce wrote about his mother.

“He’s a good boy,” Mom said of the 71-year-old man who’s always been played loud by most of the Fazzolari’s.

“It’s just crazy,” Johnny said. “How does he know what song we need to hear?”

I laughed.

“Not sure, but he’s been doing that for me for 40 years.”

“I need you by my side. Your love and I’m alive.”

Johnny needed to hear those words about Jeff.

I did too.

The song makes me smile.

“He’s walking right beside you, buddy,” I said.

“I think so,” Johnny answered. “I can’t stop listening to it.”

Me either, kid.

Me either.