To My Bobby McGee

[First, let's get 'business' out of the way. If you're clicking over from Patti's How Much Did I Write? Blogfest, here's a quick report: I clocked a couple thousand words and maybe three hours' time on my wip. But I spent the entire week and weekend doing invaluable research, so I consider myself and my week a success.] Now. For 'Bobby':

Today fall surpassed spring as my favorite season of the year.

North Georgia is touched. Its flowing green sentinels line a landscape licked red and yellow. Dogwood, first to bloom in the spring is also first to blush. Lemon poplars mirror fields of butterscotch goldenrod. Sweet gums leak liquid amber.

Applesauce clouds scud across the cornflower blue horizon. I snap pictures while I drive, hoping to capture my little brother's eyes. If you knew Jon, you know this color. I call it Jon's-eye blue.

Flags billow above browning fields and willows dance and sway. The north wind whips the leaves ashiver. Creation waves.

A cycle is complete. After 35 years, I'm home.

Last night, seeing thirtysomething of my high school classmates, I breathed a sigh of relief. Every one of them, half my graduating class, looked exactly the same. Class of '75, you guys look mah-velous!

We danced. We talked. We hugged. We laughed. We cried. And we danced some more.

Nothing had changed. Yet everything has.

We're older, wiser, kinder. Less quick to judge and faster to accept our differences.

When dancing, the songs seem infinitely longer.

I'd be lying by omission if I didn't tell you that it was the most fun I've had in years. And while I was busy having fun? A wound that I wasn't aware of having began to heal.

For traveling the farthest, I won a prize. I chose Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits CD. Then we bid adieu with a promise to meet again.

It took ten months to reach this crossroad. This fall.

As I headed toward home, Janis belted the blues. She immortalized the lyrics of Bobby McGee, written by Kris Kristofferson. Some say they were written about her.

In college I wrote a landmark essay (for me). The topic? Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. Until today I could only guess the true meaning of these words, this song. At the tender age of nineteen, I had no clue.

Today, with the windows down and Janis's voice ringing in my ears, I got it. Today, I understood.

Calvin*, this song is for you.



*Calvin B. Streets is a master bluesman: writer, composer, lyricist, performer, producer, guitar string virtuoso.

To hear snippets and download tunes from Calvin's CD "He Ain't Done With Me Yet" click here. To see and hear Calvin performing "She's My Baby", an original off his upcoming CD "Ragalicious", click here.