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The Truly Hopeless Task of Choosing Five Springsteen Songs That Perfectly Define Me
I knew it was a fool’s errand when I started
Yesterday I published a piece titled “The Five Non-Springsteen Songs (Plus One) That Perfectly Define Me” in response to a challenge from Pierce McIntyre. The actual challenge (which I will link to at the bottom of this article) was “Five Songs That Define Me,” but as I said in the first piece, for me it had to be two lists, one totally Bruce and one not. And since I promised a part two, I might as well tackle the impossible now and get it out of the way.
Anyone who knows me knows the impact that Bruce has had on my life since 1975, when I heard “Born to Run” for the first time at nine years old. Through thick and thin, good times and bad, he has been the one constant as I wandered through this odd pilgrimage called life. Navigating the hell that was junior high and high school: Bruce was there. Joining the Army during wartime: Bruce was there. Marriage, kids, divorce: Bruce was there. Even as I traversed from cradle Catholic to Buddhist to Baptist and back to Catholic again, he was always there. Oddly, he’s taught me as much about dying as he has about living. Five decades of watching over my sad, sorry self; the man deserves a medal.
