All of Me’s

Like many, I run with earphones in, and a playlist on randomize.  While my complete music collection is eclectic and (too) large, I only have a little over 100 songs on my iPhone play list (it only has so much memory).  On my runs, music both energizes and distracts me.  At its core, my current playlist is designed to keep my energy and mood upbeat.  But it also has the wonderous effect of transporting me to moments gone by.

• Aqualung to my college days off campus at Binghamton. 
  
• Folsom Prison Blues to that summer of Country Music immersion while living in NH. 
  
• The Battle of Evermore to my D&D days. 
  
• Stay The Night to our HS Senior Trip. 
  
• Jessie’s Girl to my first weeks with my driver’s license. 
  
• Saturday in the Park to my 70’s childhood.
  
• Scenes From An Italian Restaurant to many visits to Christiano’s in Syosset with family and friends to eat Chicken Parmesan. 
  
• Hyperactive to my first school dances where I stood along the wall, but danced up a storm in my mind. 
  
• London Calling to, no surprise, my semester abroad in London.  
  
• King Tut to my early foray into Comedy Albums.
  
• New World Man to my friends and mine excitement over preparing to go to college. 
  
• Mystery Achievement to my weird first semester in dorm life.  
  
• Hurricane to my inspired years of being a public defender. 
  
• The Time is Now and Cartoon Heroes to my year of working abroad in Montenegro, Yugoslavia.
  
• Defying Gravity to early days dating my now wife.  Hella Good to our honeymoon. 
  
• I Never Go To Work to being a father of two. 
  
• Don’t Stop Believing to, well, every part of my life.

This is but a small sampling of my playlist.  I could identify a moment or collection of moments in my life where the song was tied to the remainder as well.   But I will spare you.  My point is this.  In each of those moments, memories and emotions are evoked.  From lonely to hopeful.  From rebellious to loving.  From adventurous to at ease.  I carry all of the former me’s in my run. 

My completing the Boston Marathon will not just be 46 Year Old Husband and Father of Two.  It will be the elementary school kid in a snowball fight on the playground.  It will be awkward, but happy high school kid.  It will be the intellectually blooming college freshman and the motivated law student.  It will be the trial attorney who went to work abroad for a break, and then came back to find his true love and start a family.  It will be the 45 year old who, in December 2013 put his name in the lottery for a Marathon Bib, never believing he would get one and certainly never believing that he would be ever able to finish the Marathon, and the 46 year old who, today, knows he can.

Cue the Journey music.  Feel free to sing along….

 If anyone wants more information about my playlist – feel free to ask in the Comment section or email me at esqsmh@hotmail.com 

The above picture is an homage created by the kids at the Framingham Boys and Girls Club to the Boston Marathon, the Colleges that line the route, and the runners raising money for them.

I am representing Framingham at the 2014 Boston Marathon and am raising money for a local charity. Writing this Blog helps me with the challenge and the training. Feel free to write “Run, Stu, Run!” in the Comment section and feel free (please) to donate to the cause. I have set up a “Go Fund Me” account at http://www.gofundme.com/5srci4 to help raise the money for the Boys and Girls Club in Framingham.