this is the short story that goes along with one interpretation of the lyrics to my album "Moonrises and Sunsets" which can be downloaded for free here

Benefiting from the raw adolescence that he possessed, Seymour jogged down the hilly roads of New York City, admiring the architecture as he went, taking the time to stop in front of a peculiarly interesting house because of the way that the paint was situated on the house. His mind was not captured at first, for it appeared to be a normal house to the casual jogger or passerby, but Seymour was not the casual jogger. Seymour was a young man of about seventeen, and he was intrigued by the world. From the intricacies of nature, such as the way that a hummingbird's wings must be flapped hundreds of times more frequently than a large bird's wings in order to keep it afloat in the air, to the unexplainable fashion that someone that is late to work drives, when they know that there is no way to get there on time.

            Using his alertness to his advantage, Seymour can safely say that he has never fallen off of his bicycle, never run into someone while walking through the hallways of his school, and never dropped so much as a piece of paper if it is not intended. This is because Seymour does something that no other person in the city of New York seems to be able to do: he operates based on what others are feeling and what others are doing.  In this way, Seymour is able to be the selfless person that grandmothers admire, and mothers wish that they had for sons.

            But Seymour is not content with being the one that doesn't care about himself as much as he cares for others. Just because he will act on his selflessness doesn't mean that he does not wish that he could, just once, do something for the betterment of himself. However, Seymour knows that doing this will let down the people that he cares so much about, so he does not follow through on these selfish actions.

            So instead of acting on his thoughts, Seymour jogs to relieve the stress of not being able to help himself. And really, in a way, jogging is the only non-selfless thing that he can do because there is virtually no way that jogging can hurt someone, or make someone else worse off than they were before Seymour started jogging.

            In the social sense, Seymour is a hermit: staying inside if at all possible, and when solitude is not possible, Seymour feels like an island in a sea of unfamiliarity. A crowd is not the place of our man of honor, for nothing is more claustrophobic for Seymour than being surrounded by people, following trails of their unique, and often unpleasant, smells. So in order to keep his singularity, he is a man that orders take out to eat in. Someone that does not have a bus pass or a subway token to call his own, but that has more miles on his car than any taxi in New York City. Someone that is nothing but a young man trying to avoid all human contact when at all possible.

            Unfortunately for Seymour though, this is not possible. Even when traveling on his own or going into museums, which is something that he does on weekends to pass the time when other boys his age are out flirting with girls, Seymour Wright knows that he must encounter human contact. Some may attribute this introspectiveness to a childhood experience that he had, henceforth scarring him for life. Others who encounter Seymour may simply see him as shy, or as a germ freak, nothing too uncommon in the world that we live in. However, he was not any of these things, for Seymour was observant. He saw the types of things that people did with their hands and feet. He knew what places they had been in and he had no intention of going there. Not if he could avoid it anyway.

            In preparation to go out and witness the world that he loved so dearly, Seymour took out his handkerchief, rubbed his nose three times, folded it neatly to return it to order, and told himself that today would not be the day that he would crash and burn. And he told himself this with such sincerity that after the third of fourth time of saying this in a row, he almost believed it himself.

After convincing himself that each day would go out without being trapped in a flame, he remembered his friends that he used to have. For the reason that Seymour is the way that he is (unable to think of himself before others, that is), can be blamed on an accident that his best friends were involved in, that he blames himself for. Seymour told himself that he should have invited his friends to his house rather than let them go someplace else, but he didn't because he felt embarrassed of his family at the time. So instead, his friends went off to celebrate at another friend's house, and Seymour stayed home, staying alive as well.

Seymour did not try to make any more friends after this, although after a while, they would try to make him. But he would not forget his friends that used to accompany him to the park and enjoy the summer breeze, or the spring air.

                               ___________________________

The beginning of his new life, of acceptance of others, happened one day in mid- July. He overheard a conversation that a mother was having with her child in the park, and little parts of what Seymour heard were things like, "it's ok Frankie, mommy is still here," and then, "NO, NO I want Daddy!" And at this point, Seymour realized what had happened. The little boy's father had passed away, and the mother was trying to explain death to her child. The sadness of this confrontation was overwhelming for Seymour at this point, but the peak was soon to be reached when the child whispered under his breath, "Oh no, Oh no, one day I'll surely die." At this point in both Seymour's and the child's minds, a realization had come into perspective that the world would be ending at some point or another. But Seymour took this in a different direction than the child. Seymour wanted to take advantage of every opportunity, never sleeping, never resting, despite every moment before in his life of wanting to take the easy way out and sleeping, and Seymour knew that he would have to push himself to the limit and fully incorporate his future goals from now until tomorrow until the end of time. And he knew that he could do it.

Given, he still had feelings of disgust towards others, not wanting to come into too close of contact with them and their dirty habits. But he also knew that he could not finish his life the way it was intended if he sat back and did nothing. So he took it upon himself to operate under a "look, don't touch" policy, wherein he could do anything he wanted, within his boundaries. Seymour was improving.

And Seymour knew, somehow, but he didn't know how, that he would be able to get through it all. Something about what the child said changed his perspective on life. He knew that his bones would stay strong, his back would stay upright, and that his eyes would still see even if everything did not go exactly as he intended. But most importantly, he knew that his heart would still flow fluid through his veins and to his brain.

What Seymour now saw himself as, was nothing more than a tree. Growing constantly, stronger than before, tall as ever. He was becoming something he never dreamed of being not even three days previously. He would continue to grow and he would continue to be something that he wasn't before, just to prove everyone wrong that said that he couldn't.

Just as Seymour was processing his new thoughts, a single drop of rain hit the window beside him. He had zoned out for what seemed like hours, when in reality, was minutes. The rain awoke him from his daydream, but the effects of the daydream were still there. Seymour was cleaned of all of the impurities that he had before him. He had not forgotten his friends, and he had not forgotten his need to act for others alone, but he had learned to let these things go, and set his soul free. Even if it was only for a few minutes, Seymour was very, very free for the few seconds that he could get away from the moments of everyday life and simply let the rain soak into his pores.