Lesson 77: Favorite Song #4

The light is a little dimmer here at the Lamp Post tonight, Readers.  Eloise lost someone today, far too early in life.  In the seven months of this calendar year I've lost a mother in law, two friends that happened to be my neighbors, and my 20 year old cat.  I had a longer essay in mind with some pictures of me at some crossroads in my life, but my fingers don't feel like typing.  I am sad.

This song by Green Day really is on my Top Five Favorite Songs of All Time list.  I didn't make that up to fit my current situation.  Time of Your Life is the title, but it is also subtitled Good Riddance because it actually was written to be a break up song.  The songwriter thought the title was a bit too fluffy for how he was really feeling so he gave it the second subtitle.  Green Day climbed to fame during that strange "grunge" era in the early 90's.  They are sort of a cross over alternative band that had some hits on the Pop Charts.  This one came out in more of the middle 90's, I believe.  I loved it the first time I heard it and it's stayed with me all of these years.   Although this song was intended to be a song to play if you get dumped by your significant other, it has now been adopted as the song to play at life changing moments.  It is often played at graduations, celebrations, and even funerals.

Inevitably, we all reach a crossroads on our path through life.  Sometimes you find yourself standing there in the middle not really knowing which way to turn--at that fork stuck in the road.  Have you ever been in that place where your heart is pulling you in one direction, and your brain and logical self tells you it makes more sense to go another way?  I've been there and it is tough.  No, tough is too gentle of a word.  Let's substitute tormenting or heart wrenching. Yes.  Those are better.

Sometimes we feel like we don't even get the choice, just like the song says: "time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go."  I am certain that is how a friend of mine is feeling tonight--that time has got him by the wrist and has yanked him in another direction.  Like Green Day sings, "It's something unpredictable".  The song writer reminds us that it is up to us to carry that faith that in the end it will all work out--in the end it's right--even at times like this when it seems impossible to believe that anything will ever be right again.

Make the best of this test and keep putting one foot (boot) in front of the other.  You can do it.
Eloise