4. Bob Dylan's Dream

 Bob Dylan returns. This time with a perfect song to follow Souvenirs from the last post.  I remember when I first started playing guitar I would play this song a lot. I would reflect on my friends at the time and wonder when our road would split and whether I'd see them again. For some it was sooner than others and they have faded into memories. For others we have stayed in touch, but are too busy with life to get together too often. It is funny that thinking back on those days I thought I was busy and stressed, but now I laugh at how little I actually had to care about beyond what time we were hanging out and where. 

"With half-damp eyes I stared to the room
Where my friends and I'd spent many an afternoon
Where we together weathered many a storm
Laughin' and singin' till the early hours of the morn"

I would be lying if I said this verse were not true for me. There are times when I find myself in places where the memories of my time with early friends were made.When I am there I pause, get a little choked up and then smile thinking of all the times we shared.

"How many a year has passed and gone?
Many a gamble has been lost and won
And many a road taken by many a first friend
And each one I've never seen again"

"I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
That we could sit simply in that room again
Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat
I'd give it all gladly if our lives could be like that"

It is amazing to me that decades have started piling up from the days when we all thought we would be friends forever, only to have time and life take us on different paths. What I wouldn't give to be fishing with those guys, sitting on that old porch drinking some cold beers senior year of college. Laughing in the Villas, grilling in the courtyard, laughing our asses off. I wish sometimes that I could go back to those days and tell myself to let them linger a little longer.