Have a seat. Sit back. Press play and let the music slip through your skin and into your mind. That yearning you feel from the melody, that longing for love, for answers, for peace? You are not alone. Doesn’t make it any easier though, huh? Sure it’s nice to know that out there in the world there are others like you, but does it ease the pain, the sadness?

How many nights as a teenager did you find yourself gliding through the wee hours in your parents’ car? One o’clock in the morning and you’d just dropped off your sweetheart. After an hour of heavy petting in a nearby cul de sac, playing out the roles of man and woman you think you’re supposed to be, she slams the car door shut, goes inside and turns off the porch light. That’s when you found yourself cruising the empty neon streets of your hometown, searching the airwaves for something nocturnal, something classic. Something like The Moody Blues “Nights in White Satin.” Not the truncated single version, but the seven-minute album cut that included the full orchestra coda and poem reading. For a half hour or so you drove around thinking about the future.

A quick right and suddenly you were out of the light and on the darkened backstreets of the subdivisions. Large homes with secrets. So many secrets. Then it’s onward to home where you sneak into though house, climb the creaky stairs and slip into bed.

Jump ahead and it’s 20 years later. Life is good. You have a wife who completes you, children you would die for, a house, a good job. Despite some setbacks, circumstances beyond your control, you should be happy. Yet, here you are, still yearning, searching for answers, fighting back self-doubt and tears on a regular basis. (more…)