One of life's greater joys

On occasion, while driving home from work I will have a moment of unabashed happiness. This moment is found when I am in a lively mood and for some reason, when I am in rush hour traffic. My car is stopped behind a large suburban with that stick figure family smiling back at me. Why a family with two kids needs an eight passenger vehicle is beyond me. To my right, an angst ridden teen is obviously getting off of some job he hates and feels that listening to his loud screaming music makes him much tougher than his turquoise Geo would ever convey. To my left, a woman in her 60s, who is wearing bright pink lipstick closer to her nose than nature ever intended her to, looks like she just arrived from Palm Beach where big hair, fake gold and polyester still run wild. I sit in my car with the AC running fiercely to cool my blazing hot steering wheel, taking slight notice of my comrades on the battlefield that is the freeway as some song ends. Then that moment comes. It is almost as if my iPod knows how vulnerable I am in this very moment and it plays the song. You know The Song. It is the one song that, in that moment in time, will make you want to dance no matter what the circumstances are. The Song is never the same, it will morph itself into another song entirely by tomorrow, but in that day and moment it knows exactly what it is doing. Then in front of God, the stick family, the moody Metallica fan, and the fake-tanned grandma, I dance. It is as if I have been possessed. I can’t help myself, I am dancing with no shame and singing as if I were trying to reach the ears of the people in the back of the theatre. Everyone is staring at me or at least trying to act like they are not. Situations such as this usually conjure embarrassment and dread, but not this time. I only feel vivacity and a brazen sense of disregard. My fellow commuters slowly inch past me, some laugh or smile, some give looks of pity. The Song ends. Songs that follow inspire bobbing of the head and maybe singing along with the chorus, but nothing compared to that moment. So, until tomorrow, The Song.