I think it was either '92 or '93 when it was officially deemed "The Decade of Eric Clapton." I watched him on the Grammys that year singing "Tears in Heaven." I thought to myself on how he could write such a song under so much duress. I couldn't imagine that- I just couldn't. In the same thought, it dawned on me; That's the way a true musician speaks. From time to time you get caught up in emotions and for whatever the reason, my mind took me back to a place in a movie. I remember that line in "The Shawshank Redemption" when Red was narrating the scene where Andy had locked himself in the office and as the officers were breaking the door down, the sounds of two operatic voices permeated the yard below. That line said it all.

  "I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it."
 

"It makes your heart ache because of it."

 So beautifully said. As long as I've been on this Earth, I couldn't explain my feelings on that night completely to another living soul. The melody was enchanting and the words were chilling. The subject matter was of the death of Eric's son. What held him upright on that stage that night, I'll never know. I needn't speak of this man's talents- his very soul spoke for him. As if God himself grieved alone with him on that night in 1992. I myself recently prepared a eulogy and while I spoke over my beloved, I felt myself giving way. I told myself to slow the cadence of my speech and I told myself to breathe. I remember this in front of my family and friends, while Clapton grieved in front of the world. Hallowed ground he walked on that night: it was sheer bravery and I bore witness to something that may not be done again. A man weeping for all the world to see and we wept right along with him.  Courageous...