sunshine on a cloudy day...

When I was 9 years old, I had a dream. Being 9 years old and being both blessed and cursed with a very vivid imagination....not to mention a fairly unhealthy amount of childhood paranoia...I had LOTS of dreams, of course. But this one...this sly, sexy, silky, sophisticated dream...this one was special.

I wanted to be sharp...razor-sharp, cool and steely...I wanted to sing in a soft, beguiling way like I was the Devil's angel himself. I wanted my every move to be flawless...smooth as fresh ice and sexy as all get-out. I wanted the girls to shiver and swoon when me and my boys were in the house in our ultra-hip suits...I wanted them to scream when I took the mike and there was nothing but time...and a soul-stirring bass line...and a whole lotta lovin' to sing about:

"...I got sunshine on a cloudy day…"

More than anything else, I wanted to be a Temptation.

Those guys were so damn cool. Even the guy with the geeky glasses who could break your heart as he wished it would rain so that his tears would be disguised...or stir a bit of soft magic in a 9-year-old soul as he sang the praises of his girl (when I was 11 and "in love" for the first time...with Miss April Brown...I heard "My Girl" in my head every time I saw her laugh and I heard "I Wish it Would Rain" for weeks after she suddenly moved away.)

I'm not 9 anymore and the Temptations...well they're not the same any more either. In time I wanted to be a Rolling Stone...or Marvin Gaye...or a member of the E Street Band...but some things, even as they pass in fact, linger forever.

And somewhere...in a kinder, less cynical time...the Temptations, in their prime, still reign supreme in all their soulful, electrifying glory.

See there...they're on the stage and the bass player slides into the immortal intro of "My Girl" and the girls go crazy. And...one by one...the spotlights come up...for Melvin and Otis...for stalwart Paul and Eddie with the angel's voice...for the immortal, incomparable David...and (on the end, with his shiny new suit barely broken in and his heart pounding an insistent rhythm all its own), for Michael, a Temptation at last.

Some dreams...well, some dreams are too sweet to surrender.