the sweet spot

It doesn't happen often. In fact, it's a rare occurance. Now and then you feel as if the train is running on a smooth track: no stops, no hitches, no buffeting, an easy ride. Things are clicking along. Like I say, it happens very seldom but when it does one can catch a fleeting glimpse of happiness and sigh: ah, so this is what it's all about.

I get this feeling maybe three, maybe four times a week, for no more than a few minutes at a time. The rest of the time is filled with....not unhappiness.....but a plethora of petty annoyances, stupid people to deal with, watching the news on TV, observing the gamut of human absurdity. And then comes that moment, the magic moment!

Last time I felt it was a couple of days ago during and after seeing the movie "RAY" with Jamie Foxx. Ray Charles was the American Mozart. At once sublime and rough, tender and profound, crass and touching, sweet, soaring, searing. "I Can't Stop Loving You" - my God, shivers down my spine and that feeling of oneness with creation, right there, if only I could hold it. "What'd I Say" - God's and the Devil's music all rolled into one. "Hit the Road, Jack" - irreverent Ray with the hip-swaying, wolf-braying, funk-oozing fluzies, the Raelettes answering Ray's mating calls. This is LIFE, brother!

Jamie Foxx is absolutely amazing in the role of Ray, doing his own piano playing and portraying the womanizing musical uber-genius with a swaggering virtuosity. Oscar time.

But there are other occasions when I get that fleeting feeling, the skipping-the-light-fantastic tickle in the belly, the marmelade of happiness on the tongue. When my band is cooking, really cooking, brushes tickling the skin, small, quiet sprinkles of piano, a burnished, muted trumpet and my guitar cementing the sound with flowing cadenzas.

And those moments do not have to be musical, though for me they almost invariably are...it can be the sight of a frolicking dog in the park or glistening frozen branches after a snow storm and a thaw and a flash-freeze.

If only those moments were not so rare...but then again, no! Their rarity makes them precious and their preciousness deepens their humanity. Yes, Sir, that's what the moments are, they are the human sweet spots.