RECONNECTIVE TISSUES? WHY ARE THEY SO DAMP

Reconnective tissues don’t come in a container.

You won’t find them in a printed square box under a ceramic cover on a toilet tank , or in a plain flat rectangle from the Kleenex company.

Reconnective tissue can be a handkerchief, or a shirt sleeve. Even a shoulder, someone else’s shoulder, unless you’ve got enough neck to reach your own.

When do you need reconnective tissues?

You never know, but it might be . . .

1

When you look at a familiar face and see ancient wisdom.

It’s been there all along, you just didn’t see it.

People are busy, and things go by fast, and then they slow down and things look different.

I think it was in the Bruce Springsteen memoir where he said he was a late night guy, which seems natural for a music guy. He kept the same schedule at home until Patti told him he was missing out on his young kids, that morning was a special time to be with them.

He slowed down so they could grow up with a dad. Together they shared the reconnective tissues he never got from his old man.

The ancient wisdom part comes from not living with parental regrets on either side.

Bruce has the look more now, but maybe it was there all along.

2

It might happen when you reconnect with people you didn’t feel disconnected from.

Then you realize how long it’s been since you’ve seen them. Years? Decades?

I remember growing up on a street with Mr. and Mrs. Helm across from our house to the right, with Mr. and Mrs. Hines two doors down on our side. Mr. Hall lived across from them and Old Man Snow had the corner. The Hugos had the other corner.

I could pick them all out of a lineup today.

Now I’m older than all of them from the old neighborhood and I see men I’ve known since they played pre-kindergarten soccer.

Everybody is in their early thirties, gone through things, and made decisions they can live with.

Being with them in a large group is one of the beautiful things in life, like a village celebration in Italy, a seasonal party in southern Spain, or inviting them for a beer at Tapphoria during fresh hop season.

3

You’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, we’ve all heard about the power of music.

You can’t name a band on the local alt-rock station, but still feel the beat of the Bobby Fuller Four pounding out I Fought The Law.

Without being asked you can draw a line from the early Beatles to Herman’s Hermits, from the later Beatles to Pink Floyd and every group or singer/songwriter since 1970.

If you’re a certain type, you know what’s next.

The reconnective tissues of a new guitar, a new sound, holds everything together and brings joy.

It taps into an ancient wisdom, a human yearning, the need for pleasant noise to cut through the static waves of life at a healing frequency.

Is it time to write a song?

Pull your love together and put it in the center,
To share with those you’ve found who know what it’s meant for.

Hold your bond close to your heart and let it glow from there,
And live each day like you know how much it means to share.