by John G. Fedoriska Jr.

Created on: October 14, 2009   Last Updated: October 15, 2009

When it comes to music everybody has their own preferences. Music speaks to the personality of the listener. Or does it?

I've always had a great sense of humor, and many who know me will attest to that. I can find a laugh in the most depressing of situations and you would expect me to be the kind to hang out in comedy clubs or listen to Cosby albums. However. I have a hidden side; a dark, melancholy side that draws me... to sad songs.

Ronnie Milsap said it best in a tune called "Nobody Likes Sad Songs". Not that the song itself is much of a tearjerker. It's just a statement by a singer in a club that most people don't like music played there that evokes a painful memory. They want to dance, party, and trip the light fantastic so to speak. They came there to forget their sorrows. I seldom purchase that type of music. I guess I've always been an introspective person, dwelling more on my life's disappointments than my accomplishments (Not a good way to be). Especially when it comes to matters of the heart and lost love.

We encounter relationships in life that could have or might have been. Still it is the ones that were, and now aren't, that bring us the most sadness. You can go all the way back to your first love as a virgin youth. Some call it puppy love, an infatuation. It never seemed as such to you. You may never have even kissed her, but you still relish those phone conversations, letters, or secret notes passed in class, or the innocent gesture of carrying her books from school. Those days are gone, but their memory lives on deep inside you, somewhere, even in your dreams many years later. A love never consummated. Where is she today? Does she even think of you?

Then there are your failed chances at love. That girl you had a crush on but never told. Did she see you glancing her way? Are you making your affectations too obvious? Should you back off, play it cool, hope for a sign?. Years later you discover through a friend that she felt the same way about you. If only you had known then what you know now. Maybe...you would have found true love sooner.

True love, even when you find it can cause pain by being there or in it's disappearance. The failure to take chances, to step outside your comfort zone can do that. The untimely death of a spouse or the failure to take care of your own health can take true love away. Love really is like a flower, that needs nourishment. You can't care for somebody if you don't care enough about yourself to make sure you're still

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