I start to head upstairs to get the Boy to put his guitar away and get to bed when I look down and see he didn’t clean up his cars. I nudge the boxes out of the main walkway and head upstairs, thinking that there will come a time that do something like that — push his toys out of the way — for the last time, and I likely won’t even know it when it happens.
When the Boy finally gets into bed, I lie down with him to snuggle a little. He’s been putting himself to bed lately, and a couple of nights ago, it broke my heart when I realized that he’d gone to bed without even getting a goodnight from anyone. The day will come, I know, when he’ll be too big for a cuddle like that. There will be no more plaintive requests to “rub my back, please!” Those days kind of slipped by with the Girl — she was suddenly just getting herself to bed without a single minute of reading or cuddling, and now they’re long in the past.
As the Boy gets his bedtime music going — a mix of softer Beatles songs — “Let It Be” comes on.
“Hold on!” I cry, grabbing his phone to load the album itself. We’ve been watching Get Back this weekend, a little here, a little there, and like most fans, I’ve found it fascinating to watch the songs evolve from little snippets to the masterpieces we grew up listening to. It doesn’t have as much of an impact on everyone else in the family because they don’t know the songs as well as I do, so it occurred to me that they should at least listen to Let It Be a few times as we watch over the next little bit.
As I’m lying there with him, “Across the Universe” comes on.
It is, without a doubt, far and away my favorite Beatles song. Not even a close contest to any other song, in my top 5 all-time favorite songs. Period. As perfect a song as ever created.
Suddenly I’m transported back to the late eighties, sitting in my best friend’s basement listening to records, when he puts on Let It Be. The first two tracks are great because, well, it’s the Beatles — and then “Across the Universe” comes on, and I’m flattened. From the first time I hear the opening chiming guitar I know it’s going to be a favorite song for the rest of my life.
Those magical days listening to music and eventually playing music with a guy I still and will always consider my best friend are now over thirty years ago. My daughter is the age we were; his children are all older than we were.
It’s a constant theme in my thoughts and writing, I know — how quickly time passes, the transitory nature of it all — but it comes into sharper focus today, the second of our snow days here in the south. Snow is so rare and rarified here in the south that each day with snow on the ground sparkles like the snow itself does when clouds pass and the sun begins melting it all.
“Nothing’s going to change my world,” John sings in the chorus “Across the Universe,” and the key to maintaining that attitude must be the skill of living in the moment and not worrying that it’s going to pass before we really realize what it’s worth. It’s pushing that box of toys out of the way with a certain tenderness at the thought that it won’t always be in the way instead frustration that the kid left the toys out yet again. It’s treating the quirkiness of teen behavior with patience and tenderness because even those frustrating moments will haunt us once they’re gone.
And of course, it means going out to play in the snow as often as possible when you’re in the south.
Addendum
January 17 must be the magical day for snow here in the south. We had a snow day on that date in 2008
and then again ten years later!