Moves like JAGGER

I have learned that when you say yes to cool opportunities, your life and worldview will expand in ways that you can’t imagine. Mostly for the good, although sometimes not so much, but ALWAYS entertaining and leaving you with some excellent stories. Think about it: what great story starts out with: “One time, while I was at home eating this salad…” Right. No good story starts out like that. Instead, a good story starts out with…

“Due to severe thunderstorms, our flight has been re-routed to Boston this evening instead of Manchester, NH. Most of your luggage has unfortunately gone to Manchester, so upon landing in Boston, please proceed to the Airline Customer Service Area to file a claim.”

My car is in Manchester, my manual wheelchair is on this plane with me. There are about 60 miles between the two airports, I am traveling home, with my mother, who is in no shape to help me transfer from manual chair to taxi. It’s almost midnight, so there is no bus service. It is June 2006, and it’s pouring rain, and now our luggage is at one place along with my car, and my body is somewhere else. How am I getting home tonight? Book a hotel room near the airport? No! Call my sister on my handy flip phone who happens to be out in Boston the very same night with friends. Although she currently lives near the city, she will gladly step up and drive us home, about 40 minutes north of the city right? Yes. Between putting in a claim for my “lost” luggage and waiting for my sister and her friends to come to the airport, something amazing happened in the middle of the night. Life is all about adventure….well, and timing.

As the scene opens, it is now 1:30 AM, and I am sitting in my manual chair, feeling tired, cranky and uncomfortable in a long line of people waiting in a lost luggage line. This part of the airport resembles a busy city street in broad daylight, but no one is going anywhere fast. In short, everyone is grumpy. Except my mother, who is standing next to me, looking around and repeating words like “wow” and “so many people.” My mother has the most equal temperament of anyone I’ve ever met. I’ve only seen her completely lost her shit 2 or 3 times in my entire life. At this moment, after flying for hours and being completely worn out, I was ready to break stuff, but just then my mother turns to me and says:

“Hey, look over there, isn’t that Mick Jagger?”

“Ya, whatever, Mick Jagger is at Logan Airport. Please ma, enough.”

“No, seriously,” she continued, “The guy with the lips, you know that guy, not Jagger, but you know who I mean.”

Since I was a kid, my mother was famous for that line: “You know who I mean. That girl you know was in the cereal aisle today. She’s non-descript looking, you know who I mean.” Yes mom, that narrows it down. Good thing she doesn’t work for the FBI. Actually, once upon a time, she did. Even better that she wasn’t in the missing person’s department or we would all be in trouble: “I saw that man you are hunting for. You know, the one with the beard. He’s not nice, you know who I mean.

You get the point. I had been dismissing my mother on this line of thought for 25 years, but as I looked to my left, I saw none other than Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith, standing alone, looking at a subway map on the wall, and holding a bottle of Snapple ice-tea. I did a double take to make sure. I’ve been a fan of theirs since I was a kid, and my musician instinct was sure it was him. The whole band is from Boston, so why not right? It IS HIM.

“Tell you what mom, that’s not Mick Jagger, but it is Steven Tyler of Aerosmith!”

“Yeah!” she replied, “The guy with the big lips that sings Dreamy or Dream It or Dream On something, that’s who I meant. You know who I mean.”

One-thirty in the morning, and I realize that this time and place would not come around again. I saw what no else realized yet. I felt like the first person to see the “Big W” in the palm trees in the movie It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. (look it up, it’s a brilliant film with every famous comedian from the 60’s). I rolled out of line and went over to him. Realizing that it was the middle of the night, I didn’t want to be a stupid boy-fan, but I did want to tell him how much his band was (and is) a soundtrack to my life.

I roll up sheepishly (hard for me, haha) “Steve? Steve? I don’t wanna bother you man, but I’m a big fan.”

Really? That’s my line. Wow, lame. I bet he hasn’t heard that in, like, ten minutes. Anyway, I reached out my hand, and with the MD, that causes me to lean to the left and slightly forward as my body compensates for the weakness in my arm strength…

“Hey brother!” he says to me and then moves in for a hug. I cannot stress how nice he was. He made conversation with me about why the airport was so full at this hour (thunderstorms), and he told me he was waiting for his daughter Liv. I asked him how he was feeling, and when and if the band was going out on the road or into the studio. Then we took a picture along with my friend Kristen, who had come with my sister to pick me up. Too bad my sister was out in the car circling the airport. Even at this late hour, one does not park at Logan Airport in Boston. It is expensive and not at all convenient…Anyway, Kristen was preparing to snap the photo on her cell phone, and Mr. Tyler says to her: “Come over here Mama!” and puts an arm around her. Some random person took the photo and then Steven Tyler thanked us. Seriously? Not only is he the most famous person I have met (so far), but he is also the coolest. Middle of the night, being approached by random strangers, and he makes conversation. I should have asked him for his daughter’s number, but who has stones that big? Not me.

IF the plane went where it was supposed to go, this doesn’t happen. IF the luggage is here, and we simply claim it, this doesn’t happen. IF I didn’t take this trip to Virginia for a graduate class, this doesn’t happen. IF my mother doesn’t think she sees Mick Jagger with his big lips, this doesn’t happen. You never know what adventures await you. Say yes, go out and see. Maybe Steven Tyler tells the same story as the night he ran into Pat Moeschen. I doubt it.

Stay safe, stay awesome and stay tuned. Dream On, Walk This Way because it’s all Sweet Emotion, but only if you don’t do The Same Old Song and Dance.