The title of this post has nothing to do with the content.
I only titled it Mary Jane’s Last Dance because it is a badass song and it’s on the radio right now.
It was actually in Indiana that I first heard this song on MTV.
That electrifying video with Kim, not Kardashian.
At home in Houston we had no cable.
But at Mamma and Grandad’s house in Indiana there was cable.
Heaps of channels, windows into entertainment.
We visited her Christmases.
The tv in the basement was for my sister and me.
MTV was almost always on.
And it was with pajamas and snow outside that I saw Tom Petty and Kim Basinger make music.
Maybe this post is about Mary Jane’s Last Dance.
Back then, as pajama boy, the video had nothing to do with marijuana.
All I saw was an Alice-and-Wonderland rock star dancing with a beautiful corpse.
Back then this video was about romance, cliffs, sadness, loss.
Back then I didn’t really know what it would be like to love a girl.
To think there was ever a time like this, it blows my mind.
Music has followed me almost from the beginning.
I wish I had a running playlist of my life.
Every song I’ve heard, even if I didn’t hear it in its entirety.
Every piece of song that has pressed against my eardrums.
How much of my personality do my eardrums shape?
My history can be written in terms of this playlist.
Of course, it can be written in other ways, like the title of every book I’ve read, starting with Merry Christmas, Dear Dragon.
But I’ll save that for my next post.