I went back to Atlanta on Tuesday night for business, visiting our office there and some of our customers through Thursday night. Of course when I visit Atlanta now I stay in my house there.
This week was the first time I’d really done that since December 26th, and as I settled in on Tuesday night I got a strange feeling. Have you ever returned somewhere after being gone a long time, rediscovering old memories of trivial things you’d long since forgotten? “Oh – I remember those old family pictures she hung on that wall” or “That tree – it seems so much bigger”. Most people have I guess, but I think it’s different when you have those sorts of memories walking through your own house. I saw so many things right as I’d left them the day after Christmas. Before I realized it, a song started playing in the back of my head – one from a long time ago.
In college I had a room mate for a short time who was from the Greek side of Cyprus. He had only come to Atlanta as an adult, and so he was very much a European in habits. His whole social life revolved around dance clubs and his taste in music showed it. “The The” was a band he listened to a lot. I started to like them myself and eventually bought a couple of their CDs. On their Soul Mining CD is a song called “Giant”. That was the song. The one that started playing in my head…
“I am a stranger to myself / and nobody knows I’m here / when I looked into my face / it wasn’t myself I’d seen / but who I’ve tried to be….”
Although that feeling of displacement on Tuesday night was kind of strange, it wasn’t so as negative as those lyrics make it sound. Your inner DJ can be pretty weird sometimes huh?
