(The Secret of Life Is Enjoying the Passage of Time)

Thursday, March 23, 1972. At an obscure little high school in North Carolina, in a melée involving much of the student body, a young man was struck in the head with a soft drink bottle. That night, he died from a cerebral hemorrhage. I remember stumbling around the next day, a fifteen-year-old innocent trying to make some sense of a world that had just been turned upside down. The only thing that I could focus on was "Fire and Rain"..."Just yesterday morning they let me know you were gone...but I always thought that I'd see you again."

James Taylor's music has been with me for three decades now. It has comforted me more than I can say. I've had the pleasure of seeing him in concert three times (once on my birthday, but each time a gift to myself). Even though just by listening to his lyrics and his performances, I feel that I know the man, I realize that it's only my illusions. Still I am grateful for the James Taylor that I have come to know and love. And after all this time, yes, I am finally beginning to truly absorb the secret of life that he told us all those years ago.

Thank you, JT. For your music, for your soul, for all that you are and all that you have been to this family that includes all of us, the human race.