At the Corner of Van Halen & May

I am conflicted today.  It’s May, the month of endings and beginnings.  You know how you long for that moment when you’re balanced and level…and this isn’t it?

This isn’t it.

I’m kinda wondering what is behind Doors #1,2 and 3. May…the month when the entire world changes for me… starting with the fact that it’s finals day in my world. I am sitting here, trying to finish my last paper for counseling, and getting ready to take my last Constructive theology final ever.  I don’t have to be at AU until 2 tomorrow to meet with Dr. Brewer, to whisk by and turn in my final Greek translation…and then it’s all over except dinner with the crew at MaryAnn’s, an early Tuesday…a last Tuesday.   My career with the SOT is finished.  It’s so strange that it’s ending like this soundless fury of motion and stillness all at the same time. I’m not the same girl that I was when I crossed the threshold alone…and I won’t ever be the same when I cross it that final time by myself. I’m beginning to see some consistency here.  God has to be my Eddie VanHalen, singing “Love Comes Walking In.”

I’ve been listening to this song  set from the first time that I graduated…VanHalen. Yep, I’m in an eighties mood today.  That’s unusual, but there is a reason that I’m fixated.  I never really thought about the fact that VanHalen sings primarily love songs.  All those hair wagging bands of the eighties…well, except Metallica…love songs.  BonJovi? Love songs.  Jeez.  Can a girl not catch a break?  Technically, I am listening to the 90’s Hagar version of post DL Roth Van Halen.  I had forgotten being soooooo crushed when I broke up with my boyfriend/guitar player who was an Van Halen look alike right before senior prom.  It’s been a lifetime since here and there.  The music makes me smile; the videos make me laugh out loud.  Oh my gosh, the parachute pants and topless boy-chested men with guitar rifts galore.  My God ~ I miss being 17 sometimes, although I don’t think they have as much fun as we did back in the days of the VanHalen concert in at OU being a two day event.  No instant HD YouTube of wardrobe malfunctions.  Fun was more fun in person.

“Side note to friend who reads this….

Rhonda, I can only imagine all the scenes going through your mind…

and yes, I remember. :-)”

Yes,  the cheerleader duo had a life sized Motley Crew stand out in our first college dorm room, which was covered from floor to ceiling, and part of the ceiling, in rock band posters.  The days of big hair, valley girls and Nicholas Cage being an obscure weird actor, Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer were…well, hot.  No one owned a computer except Michael Dell and Bill Gates, and we’d never heard of them.  Stereo’s were really a big deal.  The word “TransAm” was regularly breathed by all red blooded males.  Yes, I said Val Kilmer.  He is great in Top Gun, check it out.

{Sigh}  Back to writing my forty year old theology.

I have this friend who says that VanHalen is codependent, that’s it’s ruined it for him forever.  Be of good cheer…First, VanHalen lyrics are officially shallow, not codependent.  Co Dependency is marked by a distinct lack of self care.  This is narcissism at it’s best, only not in a psycho sort of way.  It’s like accusing the 80’s version of Madonna singing “Lucky Star” with caring about the orphans in the Sudan.  Higher level of functioning required, and that came later. Eddie writes some pretty astounding stuff these days.  Back in the day, Van Halen was monumental.

Second…how can you take anyone in parachute pants seriously?

Third….

I could do this all day.  It’s good music.

I’m on to the Verve, Bittersweet Symphony, freshly delivered vegetable lo mein in a white carton with my chopsticks, and the last six hours of my life at the seminary.  Maybe not my last day at AU, though.  You never know what’s next.

That’s life……………

what can I say.

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