Define normal.

Photo taken July 5, 2013. Photo © 2013 Michael P. Judge. All Rights Reserved.

I was out Monday night and hanging with some people in Richmond. We were discussing the various topics of the day, the begging of the football season, the ending of the baseball season, Ray Rice and the likelihood of his new job as an elevator operator.

All of a sudden, I heard it, and I had not heard it in years; Pearl Jam’s cover of J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers song “Last Kiss”. It took me back thirteen years ago, after that Beautiful Tuesday Morning, many radio stations pulled from their playlist songs that might be considered insensitive at the point. Songs like “Daniel” by Elton John, or “Leaving On A Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul, and Mary. These songs weren’t banned, just pulled to be sensitive to those with PTSD, songs that could be triggers for PTSD.

For me “Last Kiss”, was one. It was a very long time, months in fact, before I felt comfortable listening to Pearl Jam’s version again. Hearing it again Monday night, brought it all back again. I felt almost normal in my surrounding again, trying to survive as best I could while looking for a new job, watching the seasons change, dealing with the pathetic, anemic way the Mets have been playing.

But there it was; Pearl Jam “Last Kiss”, and with it a flood of memories of a Beautiful Tuesday Morning.

So my question become this: define normal.

I’m still having trouble doing that myself.

 

Michael