“I was thinking about 2003. I was writing about it, actually. Those songs you collected? The ones you sent me?”

“Yeah, you had to lie on the couch.”

“Oh course. Of course I did. I was… wrecked. I just… well I have the story of this now, I think. I have a way to think about it. Want to hear it?”

“Yeah.”

“Well it seems to me I was sleeping. And you were awake. For all those years, you were awake and processing the whole time,”

“Uh huh.” He explained what it’s like to know you could die at any minute. There are various things you do… ways you cope. This was one of his.

“Right. So you’re processing this all along. You’re keeping up, but I was completely out of it. I was totally asleep. Last thing on my mind and then you came along and woke me in 2003. And then came these songs. And come on. It was a lot. It was way too much to process at one time. Like opening your eyes after decades and having all this light and these feelings flood in. How is a person supposed to cope with that?”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry about that. I know you’re like Bambi. That’s how I see it. You’re Bambi standing in a field. You were just going to eat a few leaves… no big deal. You weren’t expecting this. That was a lot of energy all balled up. Like 30 years of energy, condensed. I shouldn’t have hit you with that… like that. I didn’t think of it or I’d have never of…”

“Right. So I got blown off the planet by that. That’s what music can do. And it seems it’s taken me all this time to be able to start to put this together. 3 years! But anyway, I think I’m awake now. Hello? Yeah, I’m awake now. So how are you?”

Skip to part five

Have you ever been blown off the planet like this?