I've been trying out the new music download services. I couldn't even get BuyMusic to work. Rhapsody, however, works very well, so far. I haven't tried to burn a cd yet, so this is tentative, but the sound is great and there are tracks on the site I'd forgotten all about. I have a lot of vinyl stashed in my basement, old Peter, Paul & Mary, Kingston Trio, Simon and Garfunkel, Doobie Brothers, etc. It's amazing how poignant hearing these old tracks is. (I can hear Hugh Hewitt giving me the horselaugh, but he's about a decade younger than me, and really missed most of the real folk era. When he came along, it was pretty well spent. Besides, he introduces his show with a cut from the Woodstock soundtrack, recorded when he was, what, twelve?) Some of these take me back to high school, which I have never remembered fondly, but they stir something, maybe those feelings of yearning all young people feel. Now all I feel is older and wiser.

I don't mean this to sound regretful, just tender for that young man I once was, a lot like my son Matthew is now. He's looking at the up slope of life, and gulping, right now. I don't know much more to tell him that he just has to step out and keeping putting one foot before the other, and trusting the Lord to turn things to his blessing. That's his Mormon pioneer heritage, and in most ways it's the secret of life. As Hugh can verify, probably, the only things you get to take out of this life are the love you've given and received, the experiences you've had and the character you've built. It's all a one-way trip, but my belief is that the universe is not so prodigal as to drop all that mankind has thought and felt into nothingness. If there is a law of conservation of energy and eternity of matter, why not one of spirit? Music is one of the proofs.