Finding the Connection

Thunder rolled over the city, growling and coughing like God trying to clear some celestial phlegm from his throat. It was soon joined by the rain, attacking the ground with machine gun ferocity, pounding away at the asphalt and the dirt over and over again, as the darkness of a cold October storm shrouded the land, leeching away any small bits of joy, extinguishing all hope, destroying the sanctity of sunshine.

And though I was spared the sight of the impending meteorological destruction of all happiness because of my mid-building cubicle, the one located along the main walkway where everyone strolls by and glances over with hopes of catching you looking at something illicit on the company computer, the melancholic mood permeated the building, infecting the workers like an unseen virus. Even my nondescript 8×8 cell in the midst of dozens of other cells felt the pall settling in the building. I sat, tapping away on the keyboard, creating meaningless report after meaningless report that will no doubt immediately end up in the recycling bin of everyone on the distribution list, as the almost daily feeling of my sanity slowly ebbing away began to take hold.

Feeling the need to escape, I slipped on my earbuds and pressed play on my beloved iPod. Soon the psychedelic sounds of My Morning Jacket and the unmistakable voice of Jim James exploded in my head, not pushing away the darkness, but embracing it, grabbing it about the waist and dancing with it.

Spinning out gracefully
Going nowhere quickly
I am older, day by day
Still going back to my childhood way

Circuital
Round and round patiently
Getting lost by the guide
And I am all worked up over nothing

Circuits all runnin’ out
Connect my body deep into the ground
Circuits connect the earth to the moon
And link our heavenly bodies
And not a moment too soon.

And I started to feel it, that connection. Despite the rain and clouds, the honking cars and incessant typing seeming to come from miles around, it was there, stretching out of my head and into the sky, a ribbon into the cosmos, running through the solar system to distant stars and beyond, until, until…

“Hey, Matt, what’s up?”

Coming out of my trance, I shook my head, breaking the connection and returning to earth. Looking up I saw it was the guy in the next cube, the one with the Elvis haircut and the picture of a Harley displayed prominently on his desk.

“Hey, man, not much. Just doing my work.”

“Hell of a storm.”

“Yeah, I could hear it.”

“But they say it’s supposed to be sunny and nice for the rest of the week.”

Suddenly I couldn’t help but smile, “Cool, man.”

“Yeah, cool.”

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