Neil & Sunlight at 6:30

Sun against my friend's windshield, sometime summer 2014.  Photo by J. Berta.

Greetings All:

Fair warning, this blog post may not make a whole lot of sense.  (This may trigger the comment from some/most of you:  "Um, Jeno, how's that different from all your other blog posts.")

Ha ha ha.  Then again, you may be right.  In any event, here's the post:

Last week, I think it was Tuesday, about 6:30, I was driving home.  As I was waiting to make a right turn, (heading east) I was checking the traffic to the west.  It was there that I caught a face-full of sunlight.  Even with my sunglasses, it was way bright, even annoying, causing me to turn away.  The photo that opens this blog reminds me of what I saw on Thursday and no, I did not take that when I was driving.

With it being as close to "rush hour" traffic as we have in the Quad Cities, I had to wait for the light to change.  It did, and I did another quick check of the traffic to ensure it had actually stopped.  

I was ready for the sunlight and this time, instead of being annoying, it was pretty, even a bit majestic.  It was at that moment that Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" came over the new Sirius XM's Channel 18.  

I'm guessing most of you reading this blog are familiar with this wonderful, feel-good, soda (real soda, not that diet stuff) sweet song.  However, just to be complete, here are the lyrics.

"Sweet Caroline"

"Where it began,
I can't begin to knowin'
But then I know it's growing strong

Was in the spring
And spring became the summer
Who'd have believed you'd come along.

Hands, touchin' hands
Reachin' out, touchin' me, touchin' you

Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
I've been inclined
To believe they never would
But now I...

...look at the night
And it don't seem so lonely
We fill it up with only two.

And when I hurt,
Hurtin' runs off my shoulders
How can I hurt when holding you?

Warm, touchin' warm
Reachin' out, touchin' me, touchin' you

Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
I've been inclined,
To believe they never would
Oh, no, no

Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
Sweet Caroline,
I believe they never could
Sweet Caroline
Good times never seemed so good
Sweet Caroline.."

This song has moved, occupied actually, a place on the shelf of popular culture.  At sporting events, this song can be heard (when the home team is winning).  The crowd cooperates by singing along, or at least belting out this line:

"Sweet Caroline, da DA DA!"

I've got a few links in the sources to the history of the song.  I was not aware, for example, that it was thought to have been written about Caroline Kennedy.  Nope.  The inspiration was Diamond's then wife.  Her name was not Caroline.  However, he needed three syllables to make the song work.  Thus, Car-o-line became the name.

There also are covers of this song that are all over the internet.  One of my favorites is the band below:  (If you want to find out who it is, you'll have to click on the link...:)).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOaDPrWkvmU

 I will give you a hint as the the band's identity.  The lead singer has had a great solo career.  He played at my law school's university end of the school year party.  I recall he played this song.  I have no doubt I sang along, loudly and assuredly off-key.  I was so happy and relieved to have survived the first year of law school.  It was about the perfect song to hear at that time.

As I heard this song again on Tuesday, I did not remember the party some two decades ago or any specific event related to the song.  I just smiled and drove home...and listened to Neil belt out this tune.

It was circumstance that I was where I was and heard what I heard.  I did not consciously chose it.  I cannot take credit for it.  In the big scheme of things, it was a random, minor occurrence, one of dozens we experience every day.  

So what made this one meaningful?  What made it worth remembering, worth writing about?  I'm not sure, actually.  I cannot put my finger on it.  I suppose the cynic in me would say, "Well, you needed a blog post topic, this is as good as anything."

That's true.  However, I like to think that I use this post to write about things that matter to me.  I also like to seize opportunities to write about things that are positive, as opposed to the "gloom and doom" in the world.  (Case in point, I just watched "Meet The Press" this morning.  The show was one bad news story after the other.  In fact, I paused writing this post to watch a story on the decade anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the abject suffering visited on the people of New Orleans.  As I mentioned, doom and gloom.)

So this event, as random and trivial as it was, made me feel good.  It brought a smile to my face.  I did not create the circumstances of Tuesday at 6:30.  I did choose to let it make me feel good.

This is a choice we all have.  I mentioned in a previous post about my attempts to be more on time (and doing pretty well, I might add, although Dawn might disagree.)  In keeping with that I am going to make the effort to see the random beauty around me.  Who knows, I might start writing about such things not being so "random" after all.
  
Be well my friends,
Jeno

Sources:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/neildiamond/sweetcaroline.html 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2808898/I-needed-three-syllable-Singer-Neil-Diamond-reveals-Sweet-Caroline-love-song-wife-Marcia-not-rhyme.html 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Caroline