Happy Valentine’s Day

    I have been married twenty-six years. I honestly didn’t expect to be married twenty-six months. I married relatively late, thirty-two, and was pretty set in my ways, and my ways were not conducive to long term relationships. But this isn’t the most unexpected aspect of my marriage, that would be that I am still very much in love with my wife. I’ve heard the expression, “I love you but I’m not in love with you,” but I am more, much more, in love with my wife now than when we were married. Obviously, since I didn’t think that was going to last too long at the time.

    We had been married only a few weeks when we returned from our honeymoon to a new house I insisted we buy together in part to keep me from calling it quits too easily. Late one night while we were sleeping on a mattress on the floor as our new bed hadn’t yet arrived, I was too hyped up from the whole realization that I was now married to be able to sleep. So I grabbed my guitar and went into the other room thinking I could use this sudden burst of emotion to write an appropriate song.

    I turned on the television and there on the Late Night Movie was the Franco Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet starring Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. This was an especially poignant moment for me not just because Romeo and Juliet is such a romantic classic but because back in 1969 I went to see it with my very first girlfriend. We were too young to actually date but her parents dropped her and a friend off at the movie theater and my friend and I met them there.

    I have seen Romeo and Juliet occasionally on TV as I channel surfed but I never watched it as it held predominately bad memories for me. First love often ends badly. But now it seemed to provide closure and complete the circle. Here was a movie, the only film I can remember seeing with my first love, playing in front of me while my last love is asleep in the other room.

    I figured if I’m going to rip off an idea for a song, William Shakespeare is not a bad writer from whom to steal. The scene I just happened to have turned on was the famous balcony scene and the song is based on the scene where Romeo has spent the night with Juliet and is trying to keep her from falling asleep. I especially liked how the characters told the time of day by listening to the bird calls.

LET OTHERS DREAM

How a night so dark could feel so warm.
Sheets are torn and others worn away.
So little time tonight, the moon is paid in full
I fight it’s pull as shadows turn to gray.

Let others dream, let others dream tonight, let others dream
Dream away.

How long will it be till I see you in the light?
Hold me tight, don’t let me slip away.
The nightingale’s accompanied in off-key harmony
In a reveille with the lark who greets the day.

Let others dream, let others dream tonight, let others dream
Dream away.
Dream away on our sleepless night.

And in the morning she’s why I’m late for work
As I grab my keys and I grab a shirt.
Another day goes by. I watch it die.
Glad it’s gone, it took so long.

Let others dream, let others dream tonight, let others dream
Dream away. 



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