In other dreams, I'm a VIKING.

It was an odd dream, really.

A combination of multiple places from my present and past, and friends and influences both here and gone.

The gist of it was that I was attending a concert, and was stunned to learn that it was a Harry Chapin concert.  And Harry left us in July of 1981.

Apparently (you know how dreams are, sometimes....you suspend disbelief and learn as you go) Harry didn't die on the Long Island Expressway, but had been hiding out for thirty years, biding his time until his comeback.

He hadn't aged a day since I first saw him in person in the Fall of 1980.

He did a concert in the lounge called The Cat's Pause in the basement of the Student Union of Culver-Stockton College.  He played all my favorite songs, just him and his Six String Orchestra.  It was good to hear that voice again.

Afterwards, he was the host of a sort of get-together....he was simultaneously giving away gifts to the underprivileged, and accepting donations to World Hunger Year.

And in my dream, he said this to me....."In order to do good things in this world, it's important to be alive."

The last I saw of him before I woke up, he was passing out gifts and working the crowd that had gathered.

I woke up with music in my head, and a strange longing in my soul. 

I played a few albums in the early morning hours of work, singing along to the Ipod, and Harry, laughing and crying as I remembered the first time I heard each song.

And yes, I wrote a check.  You can too, if you want.

Thanks, Harry.