Since You Slipped Away...

Billy Joel is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Thanks to Chuck Klosterman in September of 2002, we know that is a small comfort to Billy Joel.

"The happiest times in my life were when my relationships were going well - when I was in love with someone, and someone was loving me," said Joel in the interview that Klosterman wrote for the New York Post newspaper. "But in my whole life, I haven't met the person I can sustain a relationship with yet. So I'm discontented about that. I'm angry with myself. I have regrets."

... it is interesting to note that Billy Joel and I share some feelings, some sentiments, some regrets. But, really... where else does great art come from? The highs and lows of the creative mind, the romantic heart.

And, even with that said... I am better off than I was in 2002, or 2004, or 2006. Reading through my old blog, it is shocking how many snippets of my relationship with my then-girlfriend, and how before that my lack of a romantic relationship with someone, slipped into my writting.

Love is an all-consuming, all-or-nothing passion for almost every human being. It defines us, it defines life, it defines God, it defines all. Our relation to love, in all its myriad forms, plays an important role in how we view the world, and how comfortable we are in those moments when we consider ourselves in it (and perhaps, of it, though the hardcore religious fanatic would never say we were "of" the world).

As I look at myself in the world and perhaps of it, I see progress. I see love - in many of its myriad of forms, though perhaps not in the desparate, romantic form that Billy Joel and I dream of - all around me. And, though Mr. Joel and I lament, and write a tuneful sorrow for thine ears to hear, along with so many of our favorite songwriters... though my heart wants and needs what C.S. Lewis calls "Eros" in the Four Loves... though we all need a little "bang a gong, get it on" ... I can say I am loved, and I am happy.

There are always lonely, hurt, and joyous, fond corners of the heart to explore for the next sweet melody and pensive turn of phrase.

But the days and moments in between can be pretty sweet, too.