Yellie Ledbetter

I was stirring my dinner and drinking a glass of wine when Pearl Jam came on the radio. "Yellow Ledbetter" to be precise, (and precision is a funny thing to use a yardstick when discussing a song with completely indecipherable lyrics, but there it is).

I love that song -- despite the fact that I have no idea what Eddie Vedder is saying -- for a million reasons, but mostly I love it because it reminds me of a perfectly lovely evening that my ex-husband and I spent with good friends. We were drinking, hanging out, and this song came on the radio and we lost ourselves in the fun of the moment. No one, it seems, knows the verses to this but the chorus? We sang the chorus out like we'd sold out Madison Square Garden. We were young and lovely and happy and, okay, a little drunk, but we OWNED that shit.

My ex and I are no longer married-- for that matter, neither are those friends -- but sometimes I think that, like those lyrics we didn't understand, that's not the point. The point is that you once touched ridiculous joy. Later there would be fighting and recrimination and disloyalty and fear but once? 

We were not afraid to sing out.

No matter what came after, that will remain beautiful.