Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Moody Blues

My parents have an iPod, something I don't really aspire to because we make excellent use of technology from the Jurassic era, back about 5 years ago. But still, the iPod is really sweet; my folks have 1100 songs in theirs, and a Bose sound dock which makes the whole thing sound great.



I bring up the iPod because, while checking it out on this beautiful, sunny morning up here in the Rockies, I found a Moody Blues album that transported me to another place and time.



Suddenly I was 14 again, with my life as-yet unwritten, hanging out with a dear friend and parsing lyrics for the Meaning of Life. And, the Moody Blues often hit the mark in terms of meaning-of-life lyrics:



And how many words have I got to say


And how many times will it be this way


With your arms around the future


And your back up against the past/




You're already falling


It's calling you on to face the music


And the song that is coming through/




You're already falling


The one that it's calling is you/



I can see my 14 year-old self, walking in the sunshine with my buddy, past a horse farm and a crumbling old cemetery, looking at the future with the wonderful sense of potential and excitement that only really happens in teenagerhood. I think our conversation was mostly (of course) about boys, but it was supercharged with excitement and mystery, in a way that rarely happened after the early teenage years.



As turbulent as those years can be, I think they are full of a beauty which isn't recognized or appreciated until long after... like, when you hear a song at 36 which held so much meaning for you way back when.



Don't get me wrong, I love my life now - it is often said that the teenage years are supposedly the "best years of your life," a sentiment with which I heartily disagree. But certainly my life as a wife and mother carries with it more responsibility than that 14 year-old could have imagined.



Thankfully, it also carries much joy and contentment as the answer to the mystery and potential that the 14 year-old me thrilled to.

1 comment:

gina said...

Wow I love this post. The country song "strawberry wine" draws me in to thinking about the past...

A wistful song about remembering the days of first love but in the song she ponders "Is it you or just the loss of my innocence that I'm missing right now?"

Youth is wasted on the young right? At least we appreciate the momories.