Real World -- Stay Hard, Stay Hungry, Stay Alive if You Can

Real World

This is a song about old friends, or rather, friendship through the years.  Time is both your ally and your enemy.  “The hardness of this world, it slowly grinds your dreams away”.  No truer words have been spoken.  I have always thought that while the best of our dreams never pan out exactly the way we want them; we are blessed to have had them anyways.  Sometimes you have a bad day, and that’s okay.  This song is about the kind of friendship that makes life special.  Someone to grab your hand and pull you aside and tell you “You had a bad day, but you’ll be alright”.  That type of friendship can’t be replicated.  Sometimes you feel like absolute shit.  Life’s a mean bitch.  You fall into a pattern and nothing seems to be going your way.  Work and all of that stuff that has to be done has no real meaning and becomes a relentless toil.  Remember, your closest family and your friends pull you away from the ridge, and pull you away from falling in.  Without them I have found that you will self-destruct.  I have learned to never be afraid to open up, no matter how difficult or painful it is.

I am still an idealistic individual, but I have become even more cautious and realistic about the world as I grow a little bit older.  Perhaps I’m too cynical sometimes.  But, I finally feel that I know my priorities in life and now it’s just a matter of meeting my priorities, being there for my family and working my tail off when I need to support them.  I’ll always be there for them.  I no longer live for my work.  I feel that there are more meaningful things in this world that require my attention--perhaps a great work of art, a cold beer or pursuing new and exciting hobbies.  These are the things that make life exciting.  I’ve never really had time for hobbies over the past 4 or 5 years, so that concept is a difficult one for me to comprehend (maybe I’ll try bottle cap collecting?).  Writing is an outlet that find liberating, so that just might be an avenue I pursue.

Our lives eventually drift apart, and the days of our youth our left behind us.  No matter how apart or distant we become, we will always know that we will be “blood brothers” and that we will cross that river to the other side.  Always remember, as long as I am around I will never let my friends down.  In a sense, life has just begun.  Just go out there and keep doing your thing until can no longer.  - A. Jones

Now I'm out here on this road, alone on this road tonight
Close my eyes and feel so many friends around me in the early evening light
And the miles we have come and the battles won and lost
Are just so many roads traveled, so many rivers crossed
And I ask God for the strength and faith in one another
'Cause it's a good night for a ride 'cross this river to the other side, my blood brothers 

-song lyrics from ‘Blood Brothers’ by Bruce Springsteen

Note:  I cannot for the life me recall if I’m quoting Bruce in the first paragraph.  Some of it is mine, and some of it could be his.  Originally written on November 1^st of last year.  

I think of life as a song.  Life is short, so I find it more akin to a 3 or 4 minute pop record.  There’s a beginning, middle and end—or, there’s a chorus in-between verses.  I think I was struck with a sudden realization when I typed it out.  Hopefully someone enjoys it.