There Goes My Life

A first submission in my new project to show what music means to me.  It so often puts words to my feelings that can’t be expressed. In 1979 and again in 1983, I had the most momentous and surreal experience of my life.  I became a father.  I can remember when my 2 daughters were first born, the reality of what had happened hit me like a tsumani wave.  There was nothing that could have prepared me for the instantaneous connection I experienced with them both.  There will never again be quite a momentous experience for me than those 2 moments of watching God give a new life, a new soul to this world.  And I was their father.

How does a young man prepare for something like this.  He doesn’t even know what to liken it to.  And I had no idea what would happen.  I privately feared I would have no connection to them.  I privately feared I would be a bad father.  I didn’t sense that I had any kind of natural instinct to fathering.

Many young people get pregnant these days out of wedlock and they have the added pressure of an unexpected change in their life.  They have an unexpected responsibility they weren’t counting on.  They might even react that expecting a baby will ruin all their future plans and change their lives in a bad way.

Along comes Kenny Chesney with a song that starts out by expressing this fear from a young man who is going to become a father unexpectedly.  He laments, “There Goes My Life”. By the time the song comes to a close, his lament takes on a whole new meaning.

This song still puts me on the floor when I see the music video. Enjoy the journey with me.