This dream had symbolic meaning to me, which is likely somewhat obvious, and which I will simply say I took as emotional growth, but I wanted here simply to make one point: I had my iPod, incongruently (but aren’t all dreams like that, where in recounting it you say “and then SOMEHOW. . .”?), and realized that I would never be able to charge it again. I had decide what the last five songs I would listen to from my old world would be.
This is an interesting question: what five songs would define you? Or, alternatively, do songs define who you are, who you want to be, what you want to remember, or something else? I feel strongly that music defines people, which is one of the reasons I look at the crap getting spewed out right now and feel anxiety about our future.
You have to make a quick decision, as time is running out. Well, I came up with five. My thought was that in developing and building a new life, you need music with substance, but you also need lightness, humor, and even a bit of frivolity. It is a weighty thing, building a new life, but the end goal is happiness, is it not? And is happiness not inconsistent with the decision to be ponderous? Can one not laugh even in the face of death dealing waves?
1. Hank Williams “Nobody’s Lonesome for me”.
2. George Jone’s “The King is gone”.
3. Waylon Jennings “Honky Tonk Heroes“.
4. Pine Valley Cosmonaut’s “Pan Handle Rag”
5. Louis Prima’s “Buona Sera”.
What do all these songs have in common? They are simple and make me happy.
I will add to this an imaginative exercise, which I believe I have offered several times: Imagine you woke up in a new country, surrounded by people you did not know, without a memory. Where would you start? What parts of you that matter would be retained? If you are a liar and a thief, would those habits still be there? What leads you to such things? What, ultimately, defines you? Would you have a new start?