Born to Run

A few days ago, Rob went for a bike ride with Noah and I headed out for the gym. As I was backing out of the driveway, I saw our neighbor, and got out to chat with her. We had told her about the Springsteen synchronicity and she remarked that some women she knew had told her they’d seen him at the gym and he’d allowed them to take photos of him with their kids.

“Well, Easter is history, the winter horse people are leaving, so I’m sure he has gone back to New Jersey, or wherever,” I said. Most of the snowbirds leave right after Easter, and I was sure Springsteen was among them.

En route to the gym, Rob called to asked me to check the bulletin board to see if his new yoga class had been posted. “You’re going to miss Bruce,” I said.

“He’s gone,” Rob said. “Left with the snowbirds. And I heard he sold one of his homes here for a $500,00- loss.”

So I get to the gym, later than usual, and I’m on the rowing machine and thinking about Rob’s friend, Rabbit. Right after we’d told him about the Springsteen synchro, he wrote back that he was in an office in Minneapolis earlier in the day, waiting for a meeting, combing through magazines for something to read. And what does he come across? An issue of AARP with Springsteen on the cover. The Boss Turns 60! the headlines screamed.

And  right as I’m thinking that, there he is, on an ab machine, just doing his thing, and I’m laughing to myself. Not gone. Not yet. A woman goes over to him, they start talking. I move into another section of the gym and suddenly hear another woman shriek, “Bruce, how’re you doing?”

“Fine,” he says, “fine.” He moves along, just a 60-year-old guy who looks like any other guy in the gym, just a guy with biceps. He opens the door to the tae kwando area, a woman steps out, they hug hello, and walk off together to another section of the gym.

Does he look like someone who made $57 million in ’09, second to Bono in the entertainment world? Does he stand out in any way? No, not really, not unless you know he’s Springsteen. But the real message here, at least for me, is that he’s a guy who made tons of money last year and is probably worth far beyond that, doing what he loves. So in the end, it all comes back to Joseph Campbell. Follow your bliss. Springsteen did that. And the next time I muster the nerve to approach him, I’ll ask him about that. So hey, Bruce, tell me about following your bliss.
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A final word on the Boss…

Saturday morning, in the gym again, we were talking to another Bruce,  Rob’s co-author of THE FOG, and he mentioned this blog and the Boss synchronicity post. I turned to him and said, “I just want to see him here with his guitar playing a song.”

Just after I said that, Rob pointed up, the direction from which the music emanates from the overhead speakers. The first notes of a new song had just come on, and yes, it was the Boss.

Baby we were born to run. 

Bruce smiled. “You guys are getting pretty good at that.”