I remember asking Wayne, as he was transitioning from someone who was my boss to someone who was my friend, "Quick! The first thing that comes to mind - what's your favorite song?"
He immediately said, "How can you such a decision?", which delighted me. "But off the top of my head: 'In My Life' by The Beatles."
I was surprised and he knew it. "Why is your face like that? Are you surprised that I'd pick something so sentimental?"
To be honest, I was. But I was also thinking what I always think when I hear "In My Life": why do the verses have to be so awkward? But I also couldn't help wondering how long it had been his favorite song because I've always been uncomfortable with it. I could never quite grasp why, but I always felt that its perspective - and its delivery - too old for Lennon's age of twenty-five.
As I woke up with it in my head this morning, I thought, "It is an ending masquerading as a love song." Although my perspective may be clouded by recent events, I suspect Wayne may have felt that way, too.
And now we begin the process of re-defining normal.
