When Music Touches Me ...

Daughtry's done it. They've accomplished their goal. I've had the album on almost non-stop repeat since I first put it in my CD player 24 hours ago. All music should catch the listener on a completely personal level, but there's one song that just seems to grab me ... for reasons that I know they never intended.

September touches me deeply. Not because of my own past memories, but because of the images that come to my mind while I listen. They are so thick, I have to ... to borrow the cliche ... brush them away with my hands. The slide show in my mind is of a young Marc Gadling, dancing out in the rain, living out his world with such innocence. He never dreamed he'd face the end of his days when he did. He thought he'd lived through hell as it was. Perhaps he is our lesson. Never dare the universe to make it worse. Oh, it will. Never dare the universe. It's listening.

It's interesting for me. As with all writers, I'm passionately, devoted to my characters. And as with many writers, these characters have saved my life. So when I hear music that moves me for them, it feels almost even more important. Almost more magical. Is it fair for me to have recently submitted a review to Pageant given the way this music touched me? I think so. The point is ... Daughtry got it right, at least for me. They found that part of my soul that music is supposed to connect to. And for me, while I'm closing my eyes and envisioning Marc's life, someone else is closing their eyes and seeing something completely different. Isn't that the point?

But why September? Why of all the touching, nearly cliche songs on this album, is it September that catches my heart? Because Marc died in September. Almost two years to the day after he learned he had AIDS, he passed through time and to a different realm. Perhaps I live too much in this world in my head. Perhaps if I lived more in this one I'd have a different life ...

... but (to glean the meaning of September) would it be worth it in the end?

I don't think so.

Random, perhaps. But I think it was supposed to be.