Run Down Dreams

Uncharacteristically, I turned on the radio while shaving. Tom Petty's “Running Down a Dream” was playing on the "classics" station. The over twenty year old song did what music does so well, it transported me across time and place. No longer was I standing in front of the mirror with my face covered with foamy shaving cream, now my legs labored, my lungs pumped and my face was drenched in sweat as I ran laps around the track at Clarkston High School.

I had just taken up the sport of running. Also, I had recently moved to Stone Mountain in a rented basement apartment. During this outing I wore headphones and listened to 96 Rock. I ran harder and harder around the 440 track as Petty blared in my ears. While zipping around, I over-identified with the lyrics. I had escaped the death trap of my old neighborhood and was running down a dream of independence and success according to my measures of the day. I didn't simply move out. I had done that years ago. This time the move took me out of the city, to the suburbs. I had a job (in a warehouse). I had not even considered attending college at this juncture. I had no greater ambitions for my employment, though I had started a fledgling non-profit organization to help the homeless. Amid all this very grown-up stuff (or so I felt), I had taken up jogging for good health. At the time, to hear me tell, life was grand!

I still believe it was back then, and I am convinced it is now. I'm also still running. I'm still dreaming and I finally finished shaving.

Chase your dreams.


Tom