1001 Albums Summary

Come Away With Me

Picture this: it’s 2006, I’m in the car on the way home from swim practice. I’m dreaming of the soft, warm, Tuscan tones of Panera Bread, hoping I can get my dad to stop there for lunch on the way home so I can get my Mac and cheese bread bowl. Cities97 is on the radio. “Don’t Know Why” comes on as I roll my eyes, yearning for Hannah Montana on the Disney Kids radio channel. You know, *real* music. I’m board to tears in the back seat, fantasizing of the day I’m big enough to sit in the front seat. I can’t believe how anyone, much less my own FATHER, could like this enough to own 2(two!) of these CD’s. Cut to now: it’s an unseasonably warm day in December. It’s raining and melting all the snow that has accumulated, promising a brown Christmas. I’m bombarded every day by deceit and corruption in the news. My ex is messaging me wanting to “talk.” I’m now *just* old enough to start developing a certain cynicism for how things are now vs how they used to be so much better, etc etc. I sit down in the morning at my parents’ house, on Christmas vacation. I have a whole week off, and I’m just starting to feel like I’ve caught up on sleep after I don’t even know how many nights of not getting enough. Dad is sitting next to me watching his catholic program and Mom is in the next room doing a puzzle. I’m grateful they are both still relatively healthy and we get to have quiet moments together (though I know I would not feel this whimsical if I spent more than a week with them at a time). Norah Jones croons through my AirPods as I take a sip from my coffee. My 9 year old self, listening to this album in 2006, would be positively baffled that we like coffee now. Much less that I’m enjoying coffee while reading nonfiction and voluntarily listening to Norah Jones. Not only listening, but ENJOYING IT?! When did we get so boring? I guess getting older means understanding calm is not necessarily boring. And sometimes, some quiet is all you need to get through your day. This album and its many meanings has been a reluctant, but now welcomed, staple in my life throughout the years. Thank you Norah Jones for this warm hug of an album and letting us all dream that calmer times may come again one day.