I was on my way to the pharmacy when my favorite Fleetwood Mac song came up on the radio. It made for a driveway moment pulling into parking lot. The store would close in a few minutes and if I wanted to linger on enjoy the music, it would make the next morning's schedule quite messy with traveling out of town. What was meant to be a quick stop at the pharmacy took a lot longer than I expected. That magic spell that song created for me on a nice summer afternoon had long melted away. We were dealing with rules around refills and insurance co-pays and the young pharmacist struggled to complete the order. He looked ready to head home for the night and I was not yet his last customer.
On the way back home, I did not tune back to the radio - that moment had slid by. Thoughts turned to when I had first heard that song and why some music has this effect of making you want to pause and listen no matter what. Ironically this one used to be on my road-trip CD from the times J was a baby along with 99 Miles from LA. No two people have the same vision of what makes for a road trip song - much depends on where the person hopes to arrive metaphorically, the baggage they are bringing to the ride and who they are on that journey with.
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