All Night Long
Anyone who has lost someone knows what its like to have some seemingly insignificant thing suddenly open up a flood of memories. A song. A picture. A laugh. Tonight I was cooking dinner and I was listening to Sirius radio. I usually listen to Sirius disorder, Left of Center, (Punk Alt), Underground Garage (garage modern rock), Folktown, JamOn, or AirAmerica…But tonight I accidentally put it on the soft rock station. WOOPS! First I heard Stevie Wonder’s “I just called to say I love you”. This reminded me of when I was in college and my dad was working the night shift to put me through school. He would call me and cheer me up and he would sing that song all the time.
I regained composure and finished my salad of chick peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, and mozzarella…Hey Leave me alone! WTF you want I’m a vegeterian! Anyway two songs later BANG! Lionel Ritchie. A blow to the solar plexus. Down for the count. Not the slow dance commodores stuff…But the classic “ALL NIGHT LONG”. Cept this song is insane to me. It reminds me of my brother Glenn and his wife Wendy. When they first got married they had this great apartment. A kid on the way. All kinds of things going for them. They were partying with all thier other newly married friends and enjoying life. I remember my brother saying how much he loved Lionel Ritchie. I was like “Dude” “What the hell is wrong with you?” I mean this was the kid that raised me on Led Zeppelin, The Who, Rush, and Tom Petty. He constantly had his black gibson guitar around his neck and could play any song by Black Sabbath. So then he tells me he likes lionel ritchie. I was very confused. So then I found out that him and wendy have been going out dancing. And my bro thinks he’s got all these moves (He did actually…pretty good dancer) and he’s groovin arouond his apartment to All Night Long. And he knows all the parts, he’s singin “karamu, Fiesta”. Doing this disco arms wave move with his frickin suspenders on and his jazz shoes. “All night long”. Damn. Damn. DAMN! They were so happy. Two people with beautiful hearts and a world ahead of them…So alive. So happy. And now theyre gone. And nothins gonna bring em back. And the sadness will always be there. And it was drugs that stole them from me. And ya know…I was thinkin of cromwell high school. and in Mr. Hortons current events class of freshmen the other day, some of the kids seemed so angry. So hard. They had just seen the show and yet there were some that still felt that they were invincible and that nobody from Cromwell is “that bad” “We just smoke weed” “Its not like we’re gonna end up like some addict” “Its just harmeless” They also thought that Jason was “overly exaggertaed” And it makes me laugh becuase all of the things they were saying….WERE THE THINGS THAT THE JASON CHARACTER SAYS! anyway. I just hope that some kind of light bulb goes off. It was frustrating because all the other classes Sophomoress-Seniors were so open to talk. We connected. They knew the things I was talkin about. It was real to them. But this group of about 15-20 Freshman were just so hard. Or at least they put on that front. But anyway my mind is wanderin and wonderin and getting sidetracked.
I was talkin about sadness.
I was talkin about missing someone.
I was talkin about the buddha saying all life is suffering.
I was thinkin about how this suffering is our own creation.
I was thinkin about attachment.
I was thinkin about doing all things through christ who strengthens.
I was talking about missing my sister in law Wendy.
I was talkin about missing my brother Glenn.
I was talkin about lionel ritchie.
Life is good wild and sweet
Let the music play on
(Play on, play on)
Feel it in your heart
And feel it in your soul
Let the music take control
We’re going to party
Liming, fiesta, forever
Come on and sing my song!
All night long!
