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Ohio state of mind
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: October 14, 2019
Do you have a song that immediately brings up fond memories of a certain someone, somewhere or some particular time in your life? Or maybe it’s vice versa, where a particular event, person or place happens to remind you of a certain song?
I know I’m being rhetorical here––we’ve all had these emotional evocations––but I bet you I got you to nod your head in agreement and maybe even fast forward to one of those very such songs and memories.
Anyway, I find it fascinating how music can literally reach down deep, seize the soul and commandeer our minds to begin racing through a zillion miles of neural networks to that one solitary, that one distinct, vivid, lifelike memory of years past. And it happens in milliseconds.
Well, the reason I bring this up is because for the past several decades I’ve had that kind of relationship with Billy Joel’s amazing song, New York State of Mind - in my case the only twist is that I’ve been substituting Ohio for New York in the lyrics.
Hearing that song instantly takes me back to a beautiful, sun splashed day in October some 30 years ago when I had just returned to Ohio from a stint of time out in Colorado.
I happened to be hiking that day amidst this amazingly complex collage of autumn colors and patterns, autumnal imagery I hadn’t experienced during my life in Colorado. The sight of those pastel colors, the sounds of migrating birds, the warm Ohio sunshine caressing my face, the earthy smell of decomposing leaves, it all put me in a state of sensory bliss.
I felt so happy, so elated to be back home that I began to sing New York State of Mind…but with Ohio as a proxy for NY.
Now I don’t know where it came from, or how it got there, but Joel’s eloquent ode to his state of New York suddenly popped in my head and immediately conveyed in me the joy I felt being back in Ohio to experience the kind of autumn days I’d lived through as a kid.
That song, that melody, that cadence, with all its moodiness, soulfulness, reflectiveness, sincerity, just nailed exactly where my mind was back on that sumptuous October afternoon.
What’s more, Joel’s lyrics spoke of a kind of conundrum: That despite being a transplant living in a glamorous, beguiling, world-renowned place like California, he still missed New York.
And I guess I found myself in that same conundrum when I was living in Colorado, amidst what many people consider some of the world’s most beautiful landscapes, where mountains, plateaus, canyon lands, glaciers, great plains, and high country meadows are all within a day’s drive.
Despite all that world renowned scenery I still missed the sights and sounds of O-Hi-O. And the month of October only served to accentuate such emotions.
So for years now Joel’s famous New York State of Mind song and the month of October have become synonymous with that memorable hike all those years ago when I felt so happy to be back in the Buckeye State.
From that point onward October in Ohio has become this once-a-year serving of comfort food for my soul, a metaphysical kind of nourishment that imparts in me a sense of peace, placation, appeasement, and spiritual satiation.
Could this enlightened state of mind be the sole result of that wonderfully vivid hike I’d done 30-some years ago this October? Makes me wonder. Regardless of the answer, it’s been hard wired into that amazing complex neural memory-board in my head.
Yup October’s waxed into a time of the year when I almost instinctively shift mind and body out of cruise control and into first gear, where I can slow life down to a recreation speed that affords me the opportunity to savor the sights and sounds of home - the refrain of desiccated corn stalks rustling on a warm midday October breeze; the pungent smell of cropland being turned over in preparation for next spring’s planting; the cool starry nights and crisp autumn mornings, and the blaze of colors that turn otherwise pedestrian landscapes into magnificent watercolor paintings.
Indeed, this is the time of year when I’m in an Ohio state of mind.