thoughts on coldplay

There were moments before the rope finally broke. Moments when the tether felt strong enough to keep together and I can remember driving on the 101 we had a brief discussion about Papago Park.

So brief was the conversation that I hardly remember it's contents but it was the first time I learned of the Park. Moments later "Fix You" came on the radio and I turned it up to fill the silence left by another brief discussion.

"I love this song," I said and you were driving but looked over to me. You were always looking over to me while you drove and I would sometimes keep my eyes on the road for you in the way I was always doing things the hard way just so they'd be easy for you.

I learned in physics that as we sat there we were actually moving at the same rate the car was and I played out the equation of us stopping, or worse: being hit by an opposing force.

The song sped up and right before the band broke in I asked you if you wanted to play keyboard or drums. You hesitated, I was clearly a step ahead, and in that moment I felt the fraying threads twirl quickly back as the last ones broke. You played the drums and I played the keyboard. The steering wheel and dashboard were accommodating.

There are certain things I have always known in my head and they have always been at war with the things I knew in my heart. A constant, raging battle of bloodshed, with a white flag being raised after long nights of indecision.

My mind surrendered for so many years. The same flag rose after every battle and it slowly became tattered. But I made a simple promise to myself: to never let my heart be a museum artifact. And with each tear in the flag, there was an even deeper tear in my heart and I've been to a lot of museums; my heart was almost ready to be behind glass in a pressurized environment. A hymn was almost written about the flag and I loathed myself for becoming such a cliche.

That was the second to last trip on that freeway--our freeway. I'm bound to say that Coldplay must have known something about being in love. And if so, I certainly knew something about loving you.

Did you know that Papago Park is burning?