My Life in a Playlist

Day 1: Billy Joel - She's Always a Woman to Me

This was a song that came out when I was in high school. I seemed at the time to be written about the first girl I ever fell in love with. To this day, when I hear it, it makes me smile remembering those times. We have connected of Facebook, and she's done well for herself. I would do whatever it takes to make her safe, so when she goes to Iraq as an Army Lt. Colonel, it concerns me. It's a song that makes me smile every time, and also puts a real fear in my gut. I have lots of men I call "brother" in the military, some retired. I'd dread a day when I got word she was lost or worse, and I have to call them and find a way. It's an "either get it done or die trying" kind of thing. Honoring a promise, even made forty years ago, is something I would have to fulfill.

I have a half-written story about actually having to do just that. It started becoming absurd, and one day I may finish it. If I do, it'll probably be entered in the Intentionally Bad Stories contest, because it would probably be that bad. Think The Expendables 3, except the main characters aren't just old, they're also fat and out of shape.