Precious Moments

Yesterday, as most readers of this blog were sleeping, an American cyclist in Italy went flying through a tiny village on his road bike.
In an extraordinarily fine mood courtesy of high temperatures, clear skies and an optimal playlist going at high volume in his iPod – the cyclist had one of those moments in life that one can’t help but cherish.
Years ago my closest friend, Mark Leffler, was at a San Francisco symphony. Throughout one piece of music he sat mesmerized to the building intensity, louder and louder until his own energy could barely be contained. Finally, with Mark on the edge of his seat, the music came to an abrupt end and Mark exploded upward applauding and cheering in un-symphony like character. But the piece of music was only pausing and every eye, conductor’s included, turned to Mark, who found himself standing amongst hundreds of black ties cheering as if he were at a hockey game. He later admitted however that it is moments like this that we must live for, to give in to our emotions and just express how we feel.

And so when this cyclist rolled through an Italian village, only to come to the realization from the people’s expressions, that he was loudly and unknowingly singing along at full volume to Brandi Carlile’s live version of Folsom Prison Blues – it too was one of life’s precious moments.