I felt a bit of sadness today, having heard of the passing of singer/songwriter Billy Preston after battling kidney failure for years. Preston played organ on the Beatles' "Get Back" and the Rolling Stones' "Can'tcha Hear Me Knockin," as well as other musical dream gigs. But stuck somwhere in my memory banks, why I don't even know, is the recollection of Billy Preston's appearance on Soul Train. There he was, sporting his trademark King-of-the-70s mile-high afro and singing "Nothin' from Nothin'," and I was entranced for that moment. Perhaps it was the birth moment of a portion of my soul, I haven't the faintest idea. Probably even less of an idea than what a 7-year-old suburban white boy was doing watching Soul Train, but that's an issue in itself, I suppose. And of course, it's not the only TV/music moment in said-same memory banks, I was a child of sleepovers, and surreptitiously watching Don Kirshner's "Rock Concert" late at night. And I never will forget the Grammys with the appearance of Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton, on stage together; THAT was magical. And mind you, I feel nothing like I did at the passing of Ray Charles, Enzo Ferrari, or Mel Blanc, for that matter, but it still seemed to matter somewhere in me. Birth moments in the human soul. Wow. I know I had one when I stepped off the plane last February in Inchon, and definitely had another one in front of that first class full of kids. My kids, my charges, see to their learning English or die trying. I had one of those moments, too, April 9th, 2003, in a little place called the Blue Goose on Jefferson Avenue in Saint Clair Shores, Michigan. I walked in, resplendent in my black-and-red Portland Trail Blazers suede jacket, and there she was, all 6'3" of her, sitting in a corner booth with a friend, waiting for the band to start, or finish, I don't even recall. I DO recall that the band was so rockin' I had to wait till the set was over to even start talking. And in the meantime, I heard something whisper, softly in my soul, something like, "Sit down. something's there." I marveled at that because it wasn't the usual pyrotechnic message my soul would send out when something about a woman had demanded further scrutiny. She still laughs at that, and pyrotechnics are at the heart of another Martha moment, but I'll save that for another time. Anyway, I'm glad I listened; the woman inside the walls of that innocucous, yet somehow awesome frame is something only God Himself could have created, much less seen fit to bless ME with! We laughed at the notion of our wedded bliss, and the rest of the universe breathing a sigh of relief, going "Thank GOD they found each other!" And before that? Well, later that same night, there was the pool game. We went off to another place to be able to talk, and I went off to the bar to get my usual Bombay Sapphire-and-tonic, and casually, I asked if she wanted to play pool. She said sure, and about halfway through the game, which lasted probably a good hour-and-a-half, or some other ridiculous period of time that would have gotten us thrown off the table at any other time besides 1:30 in the morning, I realized we were playing at precisely the same skill level. Not a particularly GOOD skill level, but no hills or valleys to speak of. Yet another signal that something in all this was righter than I had ever imagined. It was like hitting all the green lights going across town. Damn. There are now a million other moments, and I have now drifted so far from my initial thought it's no damned WONDER I need Adderall to keep me on an even keel, but.....boy, it was fun. It is fun. La chaim.