A Cigar and Stevie Van Zandt

The aroma of a cigar in the morning and that same evening Stevie Van Zandt on the cover of a book…what do these two things have in common…let’s take a closer look. That morning on our walk as we neared the water…something quite bizarre…mixed with the distinctive smells of the ocean…was the aroma of a cigar. Immediately triggering in me a memory…a memory that brings me joy…of how my Dad enjoyed a good cigar when I was but a boy. I was greeted with a smile by the man smoking…I’m sure he never realized how he had from the aroma of his cigar helped me walk a moment with my dad. “Is that Stevie Van Zandt?” A woman asked me in the bookstore that evening soon after my shift began. I nodded as she held the book telling me, “My husband was his biggest fan.” Sadness filled her face for a moment…until joy pushed it away so fast… “My husband would have loved this book.” She said. “Unfortunately he’s passed.” “She told me a little about her husband and their life (but I think she was talking mostly to herself) then she lovingly touched Stevie Van Zandt’s face as she returned him to the shelf. There is a beauty in not knowing what things we might touch, taste, smell or see…that will…without a warning…trigger, in us, a memory. A joyful memory of someone we loved whose path we were lucky to have crossed…reminding us, for a moment, how much we had…not how much we lost. On this particular day…as it began…and as it ended…all it took…. was the aroma of a cigar…and Stevie Van Zandt’s face upon a book.