A tale about the human condition is conveyed by the rock anthem: Don’t Stop Belevin’ by Journey.  The tune was included in the play list that we enjoyed while having dinner yesterday.  I’ve listened to this song innumerable times.  Sometimes I feel tears, as something deep within is touched by the slow building melody, the meaningful lyric, and the operatic like crescendo and appeal at songs end.

The lyric tells the story of the universal condition of loneliness.  Two protagonists, a young adult female, and a male depart from home on an evening train.  He is from Detroit. Detroit, the motor city, is a symbol of industrial society, of life lived in sync to the rhythm of the factories, the logic the machine.  They escape but into a lonely world.  Both find themselves in a bar, a smoky room with charged atmosphere of “wine and cheap perfume.”

I am sitting presently in a coffee shop.  It is not the coffee shop, but the bar which is the quintessential public meeting place.  I know that is so. I’ve felt it.  The world, the human social world is filled with strangers.  Each of us is one-of-a-kind, and our hope is that we will find someone who will affirm and not destroy the little things around which we have woven our sense of self.  A bar is a magnet for lonely people.

I have wondered if there is any common thread to humanity.  Perhaps what is common is our fear of humiliation, –that finally no one will listen to us. No one will show kindness to the telling of our story, convey gentleness upon hearing the random events and choices that have made us.

In our lyric the hint of a smile is the beginning of empathy, of a night shared together to dispel the terror of being alone.  The world, the darkened boulevards are filled with individuals…

Streetlight people
Livin’ just to find emotion
Hidin’ somewhere in the night..

The songwriters conclusion has to do with the utter, the absolute contingency of life itself, the universal randomness.  The wisdom is that everything could be completely different for me, and for everyone else for that matter.  Most of my history is composed of elements that I had no control over, the “blind impress” of circumstance.  The challenge is to exercise the courage of empathy, to sharpen our skill of reaching out to make the emotional connection with another human being.  Sure, it is a roll of the dice, a skill of sorts to be practiced over and over.

But we must not stop believin’.

Don’t stop.

Here are the song and the lyrics.

Just a small town girl
Livin’ in a lonely world
She took the midnight train
Goin’ anywhere
Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train
Goin’ anywhere

A singer in a smokey room
The smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlight people
Livin’ just to find emotion
Hidin’ somewhere in the night

Workin’ hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Payin’ anything to roll the dice
Just one more time
Some will win
Some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting
Up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching
In the night
Streetlight people
Livin’ just to find emotion
Hidin’ somewhere in the night

[Instrumental interlude]

Don’t stop believin’
Hold on to that feelin’
Streetlight people
Don’t stop believin’
Hold on
Streetlight people
Don’t stop believin’
Hold on to that feelin’
Streetlight people
Don’t stop believin’
Hold on to that feelin’
Streetlight people
Don’t stop believin’
Streetlight people
Don’t stop