Day One: Favorite Song.
I know a lot of people switch this up. The favorite song is a moving target. Not mine. For 24 years this month I’ve had one favorite song. “Running to Stand Still” by U2. It was released in March 1987 on The Joshua Tree. And from the first time I heard it I fell in love.
I can remember endless walks through the woods in Cape Breton Highlands Park, walking towards the Atlantic Ocean. Sitting there in a culvert. Watching the waves crash over and over again. Staring across the oceans. Wishing I was anywhere but where I was. And through it all, that one song on repeat. A song I made my own cry for escape.
You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice
Those lines kept me sane. They reminded me to bide my time. That things would get better.
I’ve answered “Running to Stand Still” for my favorite song forever. But it was in 2005 when I was at the third night of seeing U2 in Croke Park in Dublin that it really hit home. There I was, standing in a crowd of 80,000 people. I heard the song start, and I was instantly transported back to that awkward teenager all alone on a beach. Instant solitude in a football field packed with people.
At that moment I realized I’d accomplished everything I used to dream about. And right at that minute I was fulfilling one of the biggest dreams that I had.
Powerful moment. Really knocked me out. Tears were streaming down my face, as my friend Rory rubbed my back, and Jules gave me a big hug. That song still can bring a tear to my face, but now rather than a song of escape, it’s a reminder now of what I left behind.
Just a place to gather.
