The Car 🚗 Is Full

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Bruce has been making the rounds to talk about the number one record in the world, ‘Letter to You.’

He’s always so thoughtful, and the questions run the gamut. Stephen Colbert asked a good question about the three songs that made the record. Bruce wrote them when he was 22.

“How did you find that voice again?” Colbert asked.

“The car is full of all the people we’ve been in our lives,” Bruce said. 

It was a simple statement but one that I’ve thought a lot about since he said it, and Bruce has a career where he can pull it off. 

It struck me though that 16-year-old me is in the car with 56-year-old me.

I get that.

Who we are at any given age is made up of all of our past experiences and every once in awhile we can reach back into our bag of tricks and bring out the persons we were back then.

The cocky brashness of the college years. The basic insecurities of starting a career. The writing I was doing at 30 as opposed to now.

It’s all interesting to me.

Pre-marriage me.

College frat days me.

The new Dad days.

Too much fun to think of all the people in the car as the journey continues and every once in awhile I can feel the shift to the days gone by.

I’ll tell a story or think of a speech I made somewhere along the way, and it’s almost like the person in the story isn’t the same guy that his telling it now.

And of course, there are things that you’d like to try again. A long while ago I heard it said that as you age you’ll regret the things that you didn’t do more than you’ll regret the things that you did do.

I find that to be true.

I don’t have a ton of regret about what I did do, but there are moments I think about where I skipped something and I think:

“Damn, I should’ve done that.”

And you’ll often see things that tease time travel a bit:

“What would you tell 20-year-old you if you could give him some advice?”

I don’t know what I might say...

...be ready for a little pain...

...keep going!

Yet, I think you have to live through all of those stages.

Make all those mistakes.

So that when you gain some experience...

...the car will be filled with a whole group of friends.

It’s a fun thought.

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