Music

I have dreams. Big dreams. I want to play the guitar. To some, that might not seem like that big of a dream. But I have pretty much no musical ability whatsoever, so playing the guitar represents a big dream for me.

With such a handicap, some might wonder why I have this dream. Well, first of all, I like a challenge. Second of all, I still have part of that 14-year-old who wants to rock living inside of me.

As Maria and I drove down the road one day recently, I had an epiphany. I’m wasting my brain, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. We had the radio playing and a song came on. I couldn’t even tell you now what the song was, which is one of the biggest tragedies of the story.

But at the time, I not only knew the artist and title, but I knew pretty much every lyric. And I hadn’t heard the song in years.

Why are those lyrics taking up space in my brain?

I have collected a lot of stuff over the years. I can’t really think of any other way to describe it. I just have a lot of stuff. Inevitably, I run out of places to keep this stuff despite my best efforts. If there is something I can do pretty well, it’s hide junk where no one – including myself – will ever see it again. But it’s getting harder.

Some of this stuff haunts me nearly every day. The chair where I usually work on my laptop sits right next to the tower containing my CDs.

I have a pretty decent music collection. Some of the CDs go back to college. I even have the first CD I ever bought in there, R.E.M.’s debut album, “Murmur.”

I also have a bunch of duds. Sometimes I would look over at the stacks of CDs and wonder what possessed me to buy some of the selections.

A few weeks ago, I took a bold step forward. I decided to sell my CDs on eBay.

Some people look at the youth of today and worry about the direction we are headed in. Not me. I have seen the future, and I like it. At least three times in the past few weeks, I have seen young men wearing “Back in Black” t-shirts.

What does a few AC/DC t-shirts have to do with the prosperity of America? Everything, I say. A generation that does not respect the classics is a generation I don’t trust.

We have survived Eminem and countless other threats to the taste of our youth. We have taken a look at the latest female pop singer and had our fun before moving onto something else. We have even indulged Green Day, 311 and other power rock acts.

None of that matters. It all comes back to AC/DC.