Breathe now.

I think a lot while driving on Houston’s freeways. I don’t know why they’re called “free,” because many require tolls and the crowded chaos of these roads leads to distraction.

Driving and thinking is multi-tasking. Frequently the debris will wake you up as it flies by the windshield, or as it happened today, one gets stuck directly behind a huge bright orange trash-compacting dump-truck (Aggressive Waste Disposal/only in Houston Texas).

The smell was exquisitely rancid, putrid, and malodorously sweet! It perfectly accompanied the pounding percussion of Larry Mullen Jr. during the U2 song, “Breathe.” (see below)

Bono’s lyrics remind me that I have a love you cannot defeat. They rumbled in my head as I contemplated a meeting I just had with a young friend worried about the next step in his career. We don’t know each other very well, why would he listen to me? My mind races like loose electricity: did I make any sense, did I talk too much, not enough, how will he see that there’s nothing I have that he needs? All of us were made uniquely and must find our purpose, but ultimately “I found grace, it’s all that I found, and I can breathe. Breathe now.”

Lyrics ©U2 from No Line on the Horizon (Interscope 2009):

16th June, 9:05, door bell rings.
Man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer
There's a few things I need you to know. Three!

Coming from a long line of traveling salesman on my mother's side
I wasn't gonna buy just anyone's cock-a-too;
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home?
Would you?

These days are better than that; These days are better than that

Every day I die again, and again I'm reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street, with arms out
Got a love you can't defeat
Neither down or out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe. Breathe now

16th June, Chinese stocks are going up
And I'm coming down with some new Asian virus
Ju-Ju man, Ju-Ju man!

Doc says you're fine, or dying (Please?!)
9:09, St. John Divine, on the line, my pulse is fine:
But I'm running down the road like, Loose Electricity
While the band in my head plays a striptease.

The roar that lies on the other side of silence,
The forest fire is fear so deny it

Walk out into the street
Sing your heart out
The people we meet
Will not be drowned out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe. Breathe now

We are people borne of sound, the songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown.

Walk out, into the sunburst street, sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I've found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it's all that I found.
And I can breathe.
Breathe now!