Generally speaking, I don’t really enjoy the music of Journey.  Well, post-Gregg-Rolie Journey, anyway. 

If you don’t know, and if for some insane reason you actually care, Pre-Perry Journey, like pre-Walsh Eagles, was really more of a jam/groove band. Not that there’s anything in the world wrong with post-Perry Journey (or post-Walsh Eagles), but I’m afraid I can’t help but prefer their predecessors. (With the exception of Infinity. I still dig Infinity.)

And Journey’s case, it’s absolutely nothing against the band – sorry, Randy! sorry, Steve! – but my issue here stems from one of my earliest kitchen memories. I was a prep cook / dishwasher at the time, and my sous, who refused to listen to Boston because he’d heard too much of it during his time when he had my job, compensated by overplaying Journey. 

(Yes, Irony. Also, thanks a bunch, J.)

Anyway, there’s this one Journey track – from Escape, of all overplayed albums – that still makes me stop and listen every time it comes on. I’ve a special memory of that song in particular, and it always reminds me of better times.

(Well, “better” may be saying a lot. But “wonderful,” certainly.)

It was when I worked at the cafe, and one slow day, for absolutely no reason, my coworker and I spontaneously broke out into a chorus of “Who’s Crying Now”. That’s it. Nothing else happened. We sang a pretty good duet I thought, shared a hug, and got back to work.

(Hi, M! Miss you.)

I don’t usually spend a lot of time looking back. I have brilliant memories, and I have scarring ones. Like most people, my inner voice gravitates towards the bad memories, filled with self-recrimination and self-doubt, etc. I do try to keep those demons quiet, or at least to balance them out with good memories, but hell, y’all know how hard that is. I tend to compensate by training my focus on either the present or the future.

With that understanding, I’ve no idea why this memory hit me just now, out of all the other long-forgotten imprints that could have surfaced tonight, but if I’m going to be blindsided by random memories, at least let them be good ones.

And it was, indeed, a good memory. In a way, it encapsulates all the best parts of that time of my life. And please believe: there were some very bad parts of that time as well. As a matter of fact, I happen to be processing recent trauma that unearths unresolved trauma from that time. (So go the days of our lives…)

Anyway.

Every time I hear that song, it brings back the life and love and joy redolent through that turbulent time. And of course it brings back all the people that have fallen off since then; M&M, T, JT, C, and of course M. I miss all y’all.

Be well and don’t always look back, but do allow yourself to let the joy of the past inform you, and remind you, of the love in your future.

Love to you all.