And that is the memory that this song triggers within me: a powerful flood of memory, emotion, and power that we may feel alone, but need not feel that way.

That is the power of music and memory. --FINIS

Except...I was not alone. The words of the chorus may use the singular "I", but it came from a choir of people. It felt like many people were singing to me -- they weren't there, but they were.
I was, in fact, not alone. I was a part of something bigger. I had power to draw upon their strength

At West Point, as in life, you make it through by working together. No one accomplishes anything alone.

At the start of that drive, I was alone in such a way that it felt unreal. After having my extended family at the Academy to see me graduate with 1,000 classmates, I suddenly found myself alone

This is not the forum to go over every verse of the song, but I do want to point out one last part: the importance of the chorus:

"(I)will be watching over you
(I) am gonna help you see it through
(I) will protect you in the night
(I) am smiling next to you, in silent lucidity"

"Your mind tricked you to feel the pain
Of someone close to you leaving the game of life
So here it is, another chance
Wide awake you face the day, your dream is over
Or has it just begun?"

I asked myself: was West Point the dream? Or was it an illusion? What follows will come to matter more.

"Hush now, don't you cry
Wipe away the teardrop from your eye
You're lying safe in bed
It was all a bad dream spinning in your head"

Life can be an illusion, but it can also feel very real. Real enough to have a teardrop in your eye, no matter how mixed your feelings are.

One of the first songs that came on was Silent Lucidity. I don't remember ever hearing it before. Imagine leaving your life behind and venturing into the unknown. Imagine driving in the dark of the night, on an empty highway without a soul in sight, with these lyrics piercing into your soul.

After graduating the Academy, I stayed an extra day for a classmate's wedding, which was slated for the next afternoon. My plan was to leave during the reception and drive through the night -- or at least until I was sleepy -- from West Point to Chicago.

I was alone, save for the radio.

Silent Lucidity is on that list.

The rule for that any song is that it can be added to a list at any time after it came out and it triggers a feeling, a memory. The reverse is not true: you cannot use a song that comes out after the memory has occurred.

So what in Silent Lucidity triggered memory?

Attempted Murder.

Bwahahaha!!

That would be a MURDER of Crows, Doc E. — not a pack?

Do you know what it’s called if there are only 2 crows?

If every single thing that any single person did (or didn't do) was laid out in a book, its pages would be near infinite.

The more we age, the more we have to look back upon.

We can (and must) pick and choose what we choose to spend our time thinking about.

Overcoming adversity, great or small, makes us who we are. They are part of our story, welcome or not. Why not embrace them?