Against the Wind

Dear Tom,

You have had more than your share of undeserved heartache, and this little gift may not ease your pain. Our friendship goes back a long way – back to Bob Seger’s early days. You and I listened to so much Seger together over the years that I still think of you when he comes on the radio.

So to give you to something to grab onto, I enlist Seger’s help with this letter. Every sentence or phrase within quotations is from one of his songs (but, of course, you would recognize them “without any clues”).  I admit it might be a strange way to reach out to a friend. “Call me a relic, call me what you will, say I’m old–fashioned, say I’m over–the–hill. I reminisce about the days of old with that old time rock and roll.”

“It seems like yesterday, but it was long ago.” You and I used to walk or run to school together. “We were young and strong, we were running against the wind.” “I was a little too tall, could’ve used a few pounds.” You were “like a rock, standing arrow straight.”

Growing up where we did, when we did, gave us cause and opportunity to create our own adventures, whether it was “a church house, gin house, school house, outhouse.”

 “We were just young restless and bored, living by the sword.” “And the years rolled slowly past.”

We remained friends through school, often mixing our time together with a bunch of other guys. “Sometimes at night, I see their faces; I feel the traces they’ve left on my soul. Those are the memories that make me a wealthy soul.” “And sometimes when I’m feeling lonely and beat I drift back in time, and I find my feet down on Main Street.”

We would “go in town on Friday, be in church every Sunday.” I “keep thinking back to those high school days; those high school days, all the wild, wild, wild good times.” “Such a fine memory, I think I’m going take it with me.”

Then before we knew it, “sweet sixteen turned thirty–one. You get to feeling weary when the work day’s done.” Family, work and adult–hood settled in, and I asked myself, “Twenty years now where’d they go? Twenty years I don’t know. Sit and I wonder sometimes where they’ve gone. And sometimes late at night when I’m bathed in the firelight the moon comes calling a ghostly white and I recall.”

“Now whatever happened to that crazy boy?” I grew up I guess, but I never forgot you, not even for a minute. “So you’re a little bit older and a lot less bolder than you used to be.” Still, you are a good man Tom, “always willing to be second best, a perfect lodger, a perfect guest.”

And, like me, you want “to dream like a young man with the wisdom of an old man.” You want “your home and security.” I know the pain is there, but soon you will “turn the page.”

For now, “think in terms of bridges burned, think of seasons that must end, see the rivers rise and fall; they will rise and fall again. Everything must have an end.” I know you’d love to say, “Deal me another future from some brand new deck of cards.”

Remember that even though the “night was dark, the sky was blue.” It will get better.

“Ain’t it funny how the night moves when you just don’t seem to have as much to lose?”

“I’m older, but still running against the wind.” Even though “I’ve got so much more to think about: deadlines and commitments, what to leave in, what to leave out,” I will never stop being your friend.

Happy birthday Tom!

Jerry