“I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul.” ― Charles Dickens

At the Grammys on Sunday there was an extra special performance. I stopped watching the Grammys a long time ago. Today I shared with friends that the date when MTV first went on the air (back when they actually played music),1981- that date is closer to the day of the Pearl Harbor bombing (1941) than it is to today. Ugh!

I was anticipating a special performance tonight. Tracy Chapman returned to the stage for the first time since ending a tour in 2009 (she had made only three public performances since then). She has not released an album in 15 years. Gone from the music scene but left as an iconic songwriter.

She appeared tonight with a big name in Country music, Luke Combs. He had recently done a cover of her fantastic song “Fast Cars” – they sang it together, both bursting with happiness while singing. It was a wonderful performance that had everyone cheering and singing along during the unforgettable chorus.

If you’ve forgotten the song, please go and listen to it again. It’s a story. A deep story about escape and hope using the metaphor of a fast car.

The song is about the hope of escaping family catastrophe, poverty, loss, abandonment, and about dreams and desperation.

What is the story you tell yourself when you think about all the people and situations that have been central to your life? I often tell the college students I’m always around about when I was their age and how unprepared for school I was. So many of my students also work long hours at jobs. I tell them I empathize, I worked until past midnight waiting tables, paying the bills, putting myself through college. I barely made it to graduation.

But when I tell the story I’m always focused on my near failure as a student. What I never talk about is the “fast car” that came at just the right time. That job that I did so well at – made great money, met so many characters, built so much self-esteem and paid the bills. It was the rescue that I needed. I really did get launched into a future of dreaming because of THAT “fast car.” These chances that come our way are sometimes unexpected and may look like a spare tire instead of a way out.

I’ve got friends in their latter years who are experiencing terrible treatment with their careers. Years and years later, they get shown the door. It stinks and hurts and leaves a terrible taste that never goes away. This wasn’t supposed to happen at this age/stage. Students in college today don’t always act like they want to learn, instead they are trying to figure out how to go through the gauntlet that gets them a chance for a decent paying job. I want to figure out a way to tell a student who will listen that the job isn’t going to be a destination – probably just a “fast car” to take you to who you’re supposed to be next. Cars don’t last, but people do.

“A man must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.” ― Jean Genet

My wife was the fastest car I ever got to ride in. She saved my life in so many ways. I’ve had friendships that were for only a season.  As I think about them, the timing was perfect. Then there were relationships that blew up and ended unexpectedly. Some friends that turned into enemies. But we rode together for a while in a “fast car” and it got me out and took me another mile up the road. Instead of focusing on the end of the story, I need to spend my time on the whole story. Riding with the widows down, the sun bright, and adventure around the next bend.

All of us have had “fast cars” in our lives – relationships, opportunities, and experiences. Sometimes they didn’t end well. But that’s not what matters, right? What a brilliant chance, person, connection that got me to the next stop and helped me figure out who I was (and wasn’t). I’m so thankful for the hope and dreams those “fast cars” instilled in me.

Go listen to that song again.

Your kids still need a “fast car” no matter how old they get. There’s someone at work that probably needs a “fast car.” Look back and think about that friend, who probably doesn’t need you for any answers, but just some time, time to be a “fast car” a couple trips a month.

“Fast cars” don’t fix all our problems, instead they give us a dose of hope, they keep us dreaming and help us let go of the things that weigh us down in our every day despair. Everyone needs a “fast car” at some point, like a wonderful song that keeps playing again and again, making your heart beat faster and drawing that dream ever closer.

“Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.” ― Henry David Thoreau