My New and Intimate Relationship with The Boss

I can't stop listening to Bruce Springsteen lately. This is new for me, as I used to feel generally apathetic towards him, at best. Prior to recently, my feelings went as far as this: I could kinda rock out to Born to Run, and have sentimental feelings towards Glory Days because it makes me think of my mom.

Prompted by my sister, I bought The Essential Bruce Springsteen and I can't bring myself to take Disc 1 out of my player.

Here is why I think I love it, and the way it makes me feel:

It is perpetually summer, circa roughly 1967. I wear white sundresses and no makeup, or if I do, it is limited to frosted lipstick. I spend my time on boardwalks, or amusement parks, or anywhere I can find a Ferris Wheel. I smoke cigarettes when I'm not around my parents. My name is Sandy, or Mary, or Wendy, or Jane, or some other simple American name that people don't name their kids much these days, or any other girls name that ends in a hard "e" sound. Boys like me, boys that wear blue collars by day and white tee shirts by night, who come around in the humid evening and ask me out to ride in their Chevy, or perhaps their new motorcycle. They are going nowhere in a small nowhere American town.

We feel lost, but we have hope that we will not always. That maybe we can escape the fates of our parents. That maybe we can escape the fates of Americans everywhere.

These are the truths I have found in the lyrics of Bruce. He writes about simplicity, heat, anger, passion, and hope. He writes about all of us.