my careless contagion

Radio Nowhere from Bruce Springsteen's 2007 album, Magic, is a song I keep coming back to. I can't believe it's been that long since this album came out. It feels timeless. So, too, is my timeless struggle with solitude.  I have a brief respite from the solitude, but I'll be thrust out into it once again. I'm like a lone rocketeer being catapulted into space or a wilderness wanderer on a mission that's never completed. I keep sending my signals back to home, wherever that is, but I never hear anything. Just silence.  One of the strangest fates mankind can succumb to is sensory deprivation. Radio Nowhere  makes it clear that we all need noise. We all need to home in on something. In my being spat out into the darkness and cold of solitude, I've tried to stay warm with thoughts of the woman I love. I've continued to broadcast my beacon for all who will hear. My thoughts and feelings have turned to stories and my stories into a book of sorts. In my...

It's like magic to hear her voice. I'm transported to a place where I feel sane again, like I'm right by her side. I don't know how she does it, but she does it every time. Her voice goes right through my skin, right to my heart. It quickens me like no other sound in the world. If I could just have her voice and nothing else, it might be enough. Then again, it may not.    There is such longing in me to have her completely. One call from her and my sleep for the week is ruined. I cry out for her all night long. Does she hear me? Can she feel my hands searching for her in my cold and empty sheets?  It's like I'm in love for the first time. This is all new to me. I feel so much, and it has nowhere to go. She's outside of me, but she's also the blood that runs in my veins. And she runs hot. I have nothing but wishes for us. There's nothing I actually possess. Maybe this is the way great love stories start. Maybe this is the way...