The last year in spent in Nigeria, before I moved to the United States, I was a man in transition. I had given up a cushy oil company internship and a path to a very high paying job in a company where I had some connections; almost a sinecure. I had backed away from wine, women and song to reconsider the arc of my life and embraced my male friendships a bit better, deepened my ability to use my professional friend network in the future. Finally I decided to become a world class engineer and get a Master’s degree. This led to working hard and supporting myself in a small apartment in the largest city in Africa, slaving my butt off and sweating nights to learn new skills.
Part of what got me through that was music. And a big part of that was the album “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”. I wore that album out. I can sing every word. I fantasized about meeting Lauryn Hill and flinging my heart at her. In the fantasy she saw the beauty of my soul and returned the favor 🙂
Fast forward to this particular epoch of my life and I still hadn’t met her. Life if full of other pressing concerns and fantasy has been squeezed out of every pore by the constant and relentless embrace of reality. Last year I even attempted to see a show she put on, riding out to Seattle on my Yammy Warrior. She was late, so I basically caught the opening act and headed home….
Today I ran into Lauryn Hill at JFK on my way home as she exited security. With her daughter. At first my instinct was to not intrude, to carry the glimpse with me to my destination. But I decided a glimpse was not enough. I walked up to her in a store and introduced myself and said how much her music meant to me. We chatted for a few minutes. She asked some questions. I offered to help with pro bono tech work if I could .But this was an airport after all and those departure times won’t wait for you. So we had to move on to our gates. But we exchanged contact information. I don’t know if she will be in touch but….
Life. Even with vast swaths of the mundane, sometimes there is an interregnum of pure amazement.
