If you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.

I am a huge Bob Dylan fan. In fact, I went to see him last October alone at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago (one of my favorite venues). No one I knew wanted to see him but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I went, grabbed a beer and hung out behind a mom and her two young possibly teenage boys.

Dylan wasn't all that I thought he would be because, let's face it, he's getting old and his voice is starting to go. But that wasn't the main thing that disappointed me. He sang more new songs and also had a band with him. What I love about Dylan is the more melancholic, chill music of his which sounds like it's just him and his guitar. I don't like hearing all the other instruments. I still was SO happy to see him live as I've always wanted to and it was definitely satisfying.

One of my favorite songs is Like a Rolling Stone. Apparently, it's about a debutante who falls out of high society, possibly referring to Edie Sedgwick. For anyone who has seen I'm Not There or Factory Girl, you know the story between Dylan and Ms. Sedgwick (I love love love this story and am fascinated with Sedgwick, Warhol, Dylan).

Anyway, regardless of what it's based on, the lyrics, "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose," really is speaking in the negative sense but at the same time, I find it uplifting and empowering. Sometimes, I fell like I've got nothing, in the material sense. In terms of all that I have in my life, I have a lot...an amazing family, amazing friends, a great personality, a great outlook on life, etc. But materialistically, I rent a studio, have a futon that was given to me, own a bed, an old-school TV, and not a whole lot else besides clothes, books, and a few pieces of nice jewelry given to me as gifts. Because I don't own a home or a car or a ton of little technological gadgets, I feel more free...like I really have nothing to lose. At any time, I can just pick up and leave...like a rolling stone, with nothing to lose, on my own, no direction home. And for some reason, that is appealing to me. I see that as an adventure. Nothing to lose. So much to gain.

Of course Dylan was probably referring to Sedgwick getting involved in drugs and the Warhol group and taking on a course of a downward spiral. In that sense, this song is incredibly sad...but it is one of the best songs I have ever heard. And when we think of The Myth of Sisyphus, constantly pushing a rock up a mountain just to have it fall down and then push it back up, representing man's existential dilemma, I would much rather be a rolling stone, with no direction home, just exploring the world, rather than a monotonous, meaningless day-to-day existence. Songs move us all in different ways and for whatever reason, this song just touches my soul. And makes me want to be a rolling stone.