Addendum

Jacking in from the Red-Cup-is-open-again port...

The Jane Monheit version of "The Waters of March" was the first version of it I ever heard. It was on an Internet radio station. That's been maybe four years ago.

I had never heard the song before, and started Googling it. I found out, of course, it was by Jobim, of whom I was dimly aware as the composer of "The Girl From Ipanema."

I've heard a few other versions of it since then, but the Jane Monheit version is the only one that moves me to tears every time I hear it. In fact, I don't listen to it very often because it's so emotionally overwhelming for me.

And I have no idea why.

Years ago, I saw the movie 'Contact' in the theater. This is the science fiction 'chick flick,' based on a novel by Carl Sagan, about a woman (Jodie Foster) chosen to make the first face-to-face contact with an alien race. To go meet the aliens, she has to travel in some sort of giant teleportation device built from blueprints the aliens have sent us.

The movie is mostly blah, but there's a scene where she's been strapped into the ten-story-tall teleporter and the mission control chief tells her, 'you're good to go.' They fire the thing up, and it starts shaking and rocking around and they're not sure if it's going to work, or not work, or blow up, or what.

Jodie Foster is bouncing around in the cockpit chair, saying to herself, "I'm good to go... I'm good to go... I'm good to go..."

For years afterward, I would start to cry whenever I thought of that scene.

"I'm good to go... I'm good to go... I'm good to go..."

Again, I don't know why.

One day, something made me think of it while I was in Lowe's Home Center. I was standing there in the aisle looking for grommets with tears streaming down my face.

My therapist told me, "Something's trying to get out."

I don't cry over 'I'm good to go' anymore. Maybe I'll get over "The Waters of March" as well.