Thoughts and Music While Driving to Savannah on I-40

Driving is very close to transcendental meditation for me, especially on the straight two laned I-40 that I drove until Memphis on my way to Savannah. Very little attention must be paid to the road and other drivers, well except for that guy, make that a very old guy who didn’t look as he moved over to the right and almost pushed me off the highway.

Driving frees my mind to roam. I selected radio stations that played unfamiliar music so I wouldn’t be distracted by songs and lyrics I knew. I could gaze and graze the sites, giving myself permission to simply be. Something I hadn’t done for quite a while.

Random thoughts floated into my brain—

• A line of trees, their barren tentacles stretch out to the sky, begging for mercy and rain.
• As I move closer to Savannah the trees are blessed with nascent light green halos
• Needles, Winslow I only know of these places through songs. And I’m not waiting on that corner
• What am I going to have for lunch?

It wasn’t all foreign music. I listened to podcasts and was lucky enough to stumble upon an NPR station that aired my favorite and secret girlfriend Judy Woodruff for some news.

Then my own music filled the car. The Schuyler Sisters tested my vocal range, thank god it was only me and Boo.

Bette Midler broke out into her exuberant Friends. Images of friends and family, past and present, filled my head, sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews . Bette filled the air while these wonderful faces filled my heart.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a road trip, or my life for that matter, without Barbra’s Third Album. My god, that has been the soundtrack of my life. As each song played I was filled with memories sweet, exciting and sad.

Draw Me a Circle is exactly how I feel when I have a moving experience.

Draw me a circle that’s perfectly round,  
One curving line, simple and fine 
Draw in two eyes and make them bright 
Cause they've just seen a beautiful sight. 
It’s a picture of me…after being with you. 

The wonderful sight can be a new baby, man, woman, sibling, grandmother, mom.

Now if I’ve meet someone with whom I’d like to start a romantic relationship, the next song is Taking a Chance on Love.

Here I go again
I hear those trumpets blow again
All aglow again
Taking a chance on love

For those of you who know my track record, the next song is I Had Myself A True Love–the rise and fall.

I had myself a true love
A true love who was something to see
I had myself a true love
At least that’s what I kept on telling me…

There may be a lot of things I miss
A lot of things I don’t know
But I do know this, now I ain’t got no love
And once upon a time I had a true love

And then of course, my personal anthem since I was ten when the album was released: Never Will I Marry. The song I would sing while mowing the lawn in a rage after a horrendous night of parental fighting, or being told you can’t do that because you’re a girl or…

Never, never will I marry
Never, never will I wed
Born to wander solitary
Wide my world, narrow my bed
Never never never will I marry
Born to wander ’til I’m dead

Well there’s my exit.