Time machines, fancy coffee drinks... and Pugs.

Time machines, fancy coffee drinks... and Pugs.

The funniest thing happened yesterday. My son and I were sitting at the dining room table, making Christmas drawings, while listening to his Spotify playlist, when suddenly, a more edgy kind of song came on. When I wondered aloud who was singing, he said “It’s the Foo Fighters, Mom!!”. I asked him how come he knew them and he told me someone had performed one of their songs on “The Voice Brazil”, which he and his grandma follow avidly. They’ve been going  on about it for weeks and, as it happens, the final is tonight… As I write these lines, they are both glued to the TV screen in the other room.

Anyway, back to yesterday, I have to say what happened after the Foo Fighters’ song was a magical moment, for me obviously, but I think for my son too. I found myself telling him in my mind: “Well, if you’re into that kind of music, I might have a tune or two to share with you”. 

And suddenly, I was seventeen again, remembering and playing all these songs that used to be my favorites by Pearl Jam, Depeche Mode, Blind Melon, Stone Temple Pilots, Morrissey, Soul Asylum and my beloved Legião Urbana, one of Brazil’s most famous bands.

At some point, my son looked at me and said: “Mom, I didn’t know you liked this kind of music!” I could definitely understand his surprise, since I mostly listen to folk style music nowadays, the kind filled with melodious, flowing strings, as well as Brazilian and classical music. Seems like I’ve been on a sinuous musical road... But, have I really?

Since it’s Christmastime and all, we’ve also been listening to a lot of season-apropriate music. There’s this particular song my son loves, by French singer Aldebert, about someone getting a time machine as a Christmas present.

Yesterday, as we were listening, dancing and even rocking to “No rain”, “Evenflow” and “Metal contra as nuvens”, I really felt like I was doing a little time traveling of my own. So cool, but also a bit weird that for a moment, I felt as if the teenage me was  in the same room as my son... Funny how a smell, a landscape, a taste, or in this case, a little music, really seems to take you to a different dimension, straight back to the person you once were, or should I say, still are, beneath piled up layers of “stuff”.

As a teen, when I’d sometimes think of the future, especially about raising a family one day, an image would often pop up in my mind: “My children and I, eating out, having a good time, talking…”. 

I now know that there was only one inaccurate detail about this picture:  the fact that I only have one child. I did nail everything else, though: no spouse in sight, fun times around shared meals, but mostly just “chilling” and sipping   chai lattes and caramel frappucinos at out local coffeeshop, and, of course, a lot of talking, like, A LOT... 
Videogames, school, feelings, friends,  movies, food, Pugs, music, plans to celebrate his “first decade”, among many other topics, are always potential triggers of lenghty conversations.

 But we also discuss  more serious things... For instance, after we were done listening to the tunes of my youth, we talked about how several of those misicians had died from overdoses or mental illness related to drug use, and how terribly sad and wrong that is...

So today, with Christmas just around the corner, I was thinking how this life, even with its tragic and heartbreaking aspects, is nonetheless a constantly overflowing cup of mystery, love and grace. 

Really, how cool is it that experience is not a series of static, easy to label events, but rather, a fluid story that can be read and taken in, again and again, in increasingly expanding levels of meaning?

How amazing is it that we should be human onions, with our younger selves forever living underneath the latest version, their essence informing our present?  How interesting that what the child, the teenager, the young adult, etc. struggled with should often be what makes us resilient today...

How unlikely, but real, that Pearl Jam, Alison Krauss and Handel (one of my dad's favorites)... and, of course, the Foo Fighters, could actually be different versions of the same thing: our heart's way of connecting with life...

How magical is it that a girl’s cherished dream  did come true?

What about you? Have you been doing any time traveling lately? 



Find me on Instagram: manzana_iridiscente12
or write to me at theiridescentapple@yahoo.com

Pic credits (all of them on Unsplash.com):

1. Jeff Golenski
2.Katarzyna Kos
3.Chris Barbalis
4.Mink Mingie
5. Chungkuk Bae