Billy Joel Provokes more than Catholic School Girl Rebellion...

Hello reader...whoever you may be. If you have been gracious enough to take the time to read the "About Me" section of this blog over there on the left, you will already know this, but in case you didn't, let me fill you in.

I have decided to dive into the world of blogging for the first time, and see where it takes me. Actually...where it took me. This will be a blog where I reflect on some fond, and perhaps not-so-fond, memories of the experiences in my life that have shaped me into who I am today. Nostalgia is the name of the game friends. It is something I cling to in times of despair or stress or lonliness. I need to figure out why remembering things "back when" is almost a self-involved, self-indulgent security blanket in my darkest hours. I am also exploring why "walking down memory lane" is one of the first things I do on my best days. Sometimes it seems as if the present does not matter near as much to me as the past...whether in good times or in bad.

So...to the title of this blog. Many equate Billy Joel with racy numbers like "Only the Good Die Young," "Captain Jack," and "Big Shot." Our toes tap while our inner soul gasps at the uncensored look we get at some "hush-hush" topics through these songs. Yes, Billy Joel is known for his piano playing, and his lack of tiptoeing around the issues. It's so much his facade that people often skip past the true gems in his lyrics.
The sentence I am using to define my quest in the blogosphere is one such gem. Tucked deep in his song "The River of Dreams" is this really beautiful line that I have latched onto in recent weeks: "I am searching for something, something so undefined, that it can only be seen by the eyes of the blind." It just hits me like a ton a bricks every time. So many of us, myself included, feel like we are constantly on a quest for something. Something. It's just out of our reach, can't put our fingers on it, but feel as if life would be complete if we just could figure out the identity of that something. This lyric points out to me that so often that something we are searching for cannot be found by finding it. Paradoxical yes, but my quest is to touch, taste, hear, smell my way through this phase of my life because, honestly, a blind person is more likely to see what I am looking for than I am. Searching with my eyes is not enough. Metaphorically speaking.

Now for those of you who are avid bloggers, or avid blog stalkers (admit it...there are those of you who are in fact just that) I apologize for the choppy writing style. It may not be on the level of Shakespeare, Whitman...or even Stephanie Meyer (That's right...Twilight slam...it happened) at this point, but I hope you will stick with me on this quest, and I hope, for your sake, my writing style improves. For now, I leave you with the assignment of listening to the song "River of Dreams" by Billy Joel if you never have before. What are you searching for?