Outwardly, a rock & roll tour must look so exciting. Crowds, energy, excitement. But the truth is that there are a lot of lonely moments like this.
The poem started as journal entry describing a two day bus ride. Out of the twelve of us traveling, just a few others were awake, mostly crew members. They looked trapped in their desolate boredom and one person (on the crew), looked particularly tortured.
Suddenly, a representation of life became clear. The ‘reflection’ in the window mirrored my mental ‘reflections,’ and suddenly the double entendre was everywhere. The future ahead, drifting “past.” Hardened pavement and souls, but underneath, something soft. I’m in touch with the soft part, and it gets me through these times feeling relatively healthy and creative. Others seem to have buried the soft part or are unaware it exists.
I felt sadness. Not for me, for them. Their only solution was to arrive. But where? Will they ever really get there? Arriving is only a temporary distraction.
Why not seek out deeper knowledge, meaning, and new experiences? You can numb the pain all you want with too much beer, soda, fast food and cigarettes. It will only make things worse. Why treat the bus as a a prison cell, when it can be a cocoon?
Amongst it’s many unanswered questions, life has a few truths. Most people are afraid to admit these truths and I can’t say I blame them. The truth is scary. But denial of these truths is, in the long run, even scarier. Here is one truth that won’t win you any popularity contests for bringing up: we are all dying.
Knowing this, there is no excuse to not live life to its fullest. Each day brings us one step closer our ‘destination and demise.’ Most of us are only partially through our “bus ride” and will hopefully be on this road for many years to come. But you never know, the bus could break down at any time.