to hold on to one happy thought

gue mau nyoba untuk melakukan hal itu hari ini. Walau malam sebelumnya, cukup banyak ngedengerin lagu-lagu Nine Inch Nails, Evanescence sama Rage Against the Machine. So this day starts with the most romantic song from Bruce Springsteen - no, it's not Secret Garden, teman-teman yang setia. Terlalu banyak orang yang mengasosiasikan Secret Garden dengan Jerry Maguire dan karakter Renee Zeilweiger yang 'so beautifully written'.

No, it's one of the boss oldest songs, dari jaman album perdananya dulu.

Thunder Road.

I first heard thunder road ketika Melissa Etheridge bikin MTV Unplugged. Dan di session itu, Bruce Springsteen berduet menyanyikan Thunder Road. What still amazes me to this day adalah lirik lagu yang so simple, truthfull tapi bittersweet. Bruce Springsteen memang berhasil 'menangkap' perasaan orang saat Amerika berada dalam pergelutan di dekade 70-an.

So, waktu beberapa teman menulis board in a will-not-be-named friends-community website tentang lirik lagu apa yang menjadi favorit gue, Thunder Road dan beberapa lagu kesukaan yang lain comes to mind. But i quote this verse from the song:

'You can hide beneath your covers and study your pain
Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses to the rain
Waste your summer praying in vain, for a saviour to rise from these streets
Well, i'm no hero that's understood, All the redemption i can offer is beneath this diry hood
With a chance to make it good somehow, tell me what else can we do now.

Except roll down the windows and let the wind blow back your hair
The night's busting open this two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings for some wheels
Climb in back, heaven's waiting down the tracks'

Tidak seperti lagu-lagu sekarang yang dipenuhi chorus, bridge etc, lirik Thunder Road unik tiap versenya. And that's quite a lot.Seperti yang dikomentari di acara VH1, the lyrics are pure poetry. So maybe i have a soft spot for poetry, or maybe i have a soft spot for something that seems so easily spoken, but actually very well thought of. Or something you care very deeply about.

Oh, i wish, no, i want to be that guy. You know the one. Mereka yang datang dan kelihatan so cool dan cuek, but lo bakal kaget bahwa ternyata mereka itu bisa nyimpen so much depth. The troublemaker, the prodigal son, the man nobody wanted. Dan dia berdiri di depan lo, offering his hand to you, for a change to make something good. Just a chance that your life could be something different than this dreary existence you experience day-in, day-out.

Honestly.

What i would give for a chance like that?

Hey, i'm just me. Not the businessman with a US$ 1000000 or the model with the looks and style that could kill. I don't even seriously think i have a future.But you see, i have a hope, a wish, a chance. It might work, it might not. But i want you to be with me.

Being with someone is never something that needs a precedent. It something you choose, freely, not of the person he wants to be, or the person he might be, but for what he is. You don't need a reason. You just feel it.

That's what Thunder Road means to me.

Bukan cuma sekedar lagu romantis atau puitis tentang cinta. No, it's about asking someone to come along, chasing down a dream together, but realizing bahwa the heaven you're searching IS chasing it together. Together.

That's deep. Beautiful tapi tetap truthful, dan tidak dirangkai berbagai kata-kata manis dan berbunga-bunga yang terlalu sering kita dengar dan diumbar begitu banyak orang. In many ways, kurang lebih sama dengan quote yang dulu gue pernah kirim - live is full of mediocre things, jadi jangan jadikan cinta jadi salah satunya.

Dan semua bisa dirangkum di baris 'Except roll down the windows and let the wind blow back your hair'. Mengapa? Karena hanya itu yang kita bisa lakukan, or miliki at this point in time. Maybe it's not all there's is to it, or maybe its the whole experience.

So you could say, i'm off to a good start.

So, no job. No (foreable) future, Nothing. Just one moment. One thought.

Happy birthday.