The Dreamer's Disease

There are songs that will stay with me forever.  All I have to do is listen and I am suddenly transported back to when I first made that memory.  Is there anyone else out there like that?  For Matt and I, Lifehouse will always be "our" band.  Forty years from now when we are driving 45 MPH down the freeway and "Hanging By A Moment" comes on the oldies station, we'll take out our dentures and start making out, because it takes us back to our courtship.  Whenever I hear "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins the world dissolves away into the summer before my senior year (the summer of fires).  Every October I listen to "From Cumorah's Hill."  It takes me back to the fall of my Senior Year of College.   I love music.  I love that no matter how much time goes by, you still remember what you were wearing, what it smelled like, what was going on when you made your first and lasting memory of that song.  As we were driving home from the relay for life, a song came on that spurred a 40 minutes discussion between myself and Matt.  The song: "You get what you give."  The band: "New Radicals"  The memory: Matt's last year of college.  Now I'll explain why, here are the lyrics:

Wake up, kids.
We've got the dreamers disease.
Age fourteen, they got you down on your knees.
So polite, we're busy still saying please.
Frenemies, who when you're down ain't your friend.
Ev'ry night we smash a Mercedes Benz.
First we run and then we laugh till we cry.
But when the night is falling,
You cannot find the light, light.
If you feel your dreams are dyin', hold tight.
You've got the music in you.
Don't let go.
You've got the music in you.
One dance left.
This world is gonna pull through.
Don't give up.
You got a reason to live.
Can't forget.
We only get what we give.
I'm comin' home, baby.
You're the tops.
Give it to me now.
Four A.M., we ran a miracle mile.
We're flat broke, but hey, we do it in style.
The bad rich, is flyin' in for your trial
But when the night is falling,
You cannot find a friend, friend.
You feel your tree is breakin' just then.
You've got the music in you.
Don't let go.
You've got the music in you.
One dance left.
This world is gonna pull through.
Don't give up.
You got a reason to live.
Can't forget.
We only get what we give.
This whole d*** world could fall apart.
You'll be OK, follow your heart.
You're in harms way.
I'm right behind.
Now say you're mine.
You've got the music in you.
Don't let go.
You've got the music in you.
One dance left.
This world is gonna pull through.
Don't give up.
You got a reason to live.
Can't forget.
We only get what we give.
Don't let go.
I feel the music in you,
Fly... high.
What's real can't die.
You only get what we give.
You're gonna get what we give.
Don't give up.
Just don't be afraid to leave.
Health insurance rip off lying.

FDA big bankers buying,
Fake computer crashes dining.
Cloning while they're multiplying.
Fashion shoots,
With Beck and Hanson,
Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson.
You're all fakes,
Run to your mansions.
Come around,
We'll kick you’re a** in!
Don't let go.
One dance left.
Don't give up.
Can’t forget.
Don’t let go.

It was the time when Matt was going to school full-time, working full-time, and doing a part-time internship.  There wasn't a lot of free time (or money) and our most favorite thing to do was to scrounge up $3.72.  We piled the kids in the car and we headed to KB.  $3.72 bought Matt a LG drink, me a Med one, and the kids both got baby root beers.  After we got our drinks we headed up the hill and cranked the new radicals.  We had dreams a plenty but trying to reach them was WAY hard.  Matt was never home, he was working for the future, but the present was lonely and tiresome.  It got to the point that whenever the kids saw the business building on campus, they would start crying because that building represented the absence of their father.  When we would start to get down on ourselves and ask "Why are we doing this? We are tired, we never see each other."  The words to this song came into our minds:

If you feel your dreams are dyin', hold tight.
You've got the music in you.
Don't let go.
You've got the music in you.
One dance left.
This world is gonna pull through.
Don't give up.
You got a reason to live.

Then we would kiss each other goodbye and hold on until we saw each other again around 11:30 that night.  There is a particular line in this song that became our motto.  Almost everything we did revolved around it.  "We're flat broke, but hey, we do it in style." Most of you who have gone to school know the joys of eating Ramen for a month or heading to Walmart on Saturday just so you can eat the free samples they give out.  Yes, we did this, but we did it in style.  I love this song, not for the words, but for the sentiment behind what it means to me and my little family.  So when you start to get down on yourself and wonder what the point is, grab hold of the dreamer's disease and just live your life in style - your style.  Anybody else out there have a song like this?