"And love
Is not the easy thing
The only baggage
That you can bring
Not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Walk on
Walk on
What you got, they can't steal it
No they can't even feel it

Walk on
Walk on
Stay safe tonight

You're packing a suitcase for a place
None of us has been
A place that has to be believed
To be seen

You could have flown away
A singing bird
In an open cage
Who will only fly

Walk on
Walk on
What you got
You can't deny it
Can't sell it or buy it

Walk on
Walk on
You stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
You can only take so much

Walk on
Walk on

Home
Hard to know what it is
If you never had one

Home
I can't say where it is
But I know I'm going

Home
That's where the hurt is

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
You can only take so much
Walk on

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind

All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break

All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind

All that you reason
All that you care

All that you sense
All that you scheme
All you dress up
And all that you see

All you create
All that you wreck
All that you hate"

-Walk On by U2

Driving on the 210 East on my way to lunch with my aunt, I blast my car stereo with the uplifting tunes from U2 "All That You Can't Leave Behind" album. This is my favorite method of listening to music - driving on a highway all alone in the car. There's something intoxicating about being surrounded only by the sonorous sound of music reverberating in small confined space. I am not one of those to whom music is just a background to my life. Listening to music is not just a matter of hearing it with my biological audio organs but rather absorbing it with all my being. Of course I do not think all music pleasant or aggreable even with my varied moods and preferences in music genre.

I listen to the entire album straight through and I enjoy all the songs with great relish. I feel happy, I feel broken, I feel comforted, I feel hopeful. The cd player returns to track 1 and suddenly I have a strong desire to listen to "Walk On" on repeat, feeling like it's the message that I want to hear right now. I haven't memorized the order of songs yet so I search around for it listening only to the intro to each track. Now that I've decided that I want to hear that one particular song the other songs do not satisfy, although just a few minutes before I thoroughly enjoyed them all. And once the decision was made, there's a sense of urgency I didn't feel before. I apply this logic to other decision making like choosing an ice cream, choosing a boyfriend, choosing a career, choosing life goals, choosing where to live, etc. The reality of exclusion of all other possibilities when making a decision scares me a bit and I feel frozen for a few seconds. 'How immature am I,' I think to myself...still learning to make decisions and stick to its consequences and be content in it.