Song and Memory: "Let's Get Together"

{written Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008}

I was driving my car yesterday, listening to the radio, and this article spoke to me:

http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/02/08/songandmem/

At age 19 in 1970, he hitchhiked from New Hampshire to a rock festival in Ontario. He tells of the time he heard The Youngbloods sing "Let's Get Together". He was in the company of a girl, also from his hometown, whom he just met. Now, nearly 40 years later, he wants to find that girl. His description is so vivid I imagined myself there. There, suspended at the top of a ferris wheel, tingling all over from vertigo combined with anticipation.

Given the poetic predictability, why do people not take action when "in the moment"? (why not - strike while the iron is hot?) Why not [ask for a] kiss, or try to know her more?

Why do people choose to hold back love? Why do people not try? Why do people rather lose each other? Why do we misunderstand? I should know these rules, but can't answer.

Some experiences in youth are indelible. A deeply felt experience leaves a physical imprint as memory and sensations in your organs, from your heart and stomach, to skin and mind. You are a collection of memories, bonded within you forever. When left with only a distant intangible memory, perhaps your memory exacerbates its salient characteristic - turning more poignant or pungent, sweet or bittersweet - through the romance and regret in your eyes.

Is it true we lose youth with age? What changes, besides accumulating years and bodily ailments? Do we have less exposure to rich experience? Do we lose heightened sensations of feelings - that seemed so crisp as a teen? Or is our attention elsewhere? Maybe we close one phase and move on. Maybe we trade one kind of freedom for another. Maybe it's about perception. Or maybe we can try one more time...

And smile when you sing the Youngbloods song to yourself:

"Love is but the song we sing,
And fear's the way we die
You can make the mountains ring
Or make the angels cry
Know the dove is on the wing
And you need not know why

C'mon people now, ..."

Yes, and Happy Easter today!