Man, Scott. That was really, really good. Very similar story except for the music part...and a fight at the Howard Johnson's in LA in the 70's. Wish we lived closer to each other.

Your statement is life changing! As long as you cling to the past or you are a person with your life outlined... you cut off or postpone living a fresh life. I've beat myself up for years over mistakes & sadness about my planned life not working out as I wanted. Then I heard this line at the end of a Criminal Minds episode, "“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell. I played it over several times to get the quote right and then put it in the search engine and stumbled onto this page! I thought of the word, "coincidence", Merriam-Webster puts it... " a situation in which events happen at the same time in a way that is not planned or expected." And, in hindsight I can see that my life's best moments occurred when I went off the beaten path. So, thank you, Joseph Campbell, for sharing your keen insight. In its' simple way, it's quite profound!