The soundtrack of our lives

We were born forever
We are twinned in a fugitive mind
Friends should stay together and
Light the world with the fugitive kind

-"Satellites" by Ricki Lee Jones


The other day I was walking through the pet store and this song was playing overhead. Suddenly I found myself stopped in my tracks, clutching a bag of dog food and sighing wistfully. There is so much about this song that means so much to me, and because it's not a song that gets a lot of, if any, play, it threw me off to hear it out of the blue like I did.

It's funny how a song can stir up memories that had long since been tucked away. Not memories like, "Oh remember the time we did such-and-such," but just random bits and pieces like the purple velvet bedspread you had in your dorm room, or the pack of Merit cigarettes that was always in your pocket. You remember things like Paul Masson "california carafe" wine and the Throwing Muses poster in your best friend's bedroom at Condo #7. Suddenly all this stuff comes rushing back, and you start thinking even further and deeper into it. You suddenly remember people you'd forgotten and the nicknames you'd given them. You remember the mauve tabletops in the cafeteria and the time "Equine Boobie" galloped over the catwalk. You remember Matt and his tea. You suddenly recall pieces and vignettes of conversations that were otherwise unmemorable.

Funny how all this can come back within the first few seconds of a song you haven't heard in a long time.

Funny how you start thinking of all the stuff that happened back then and how your life has been shaped by those things. You start to think about the path your life has taken and wonder how it would have been different if those things hadn't been a part of it. You can't control the feelings and emotions that wash over you in those seconds of recollection; they just come. And to think these things wouldn't have even crossed your mind had you not decided that you needed dog food at that moment...it's kind of weird, isn't it?