Dreams don't always come true...

As I was driving upstate from NYC this morning for what I'd like to call a "work-related road trip," breathing in the brisk mountain air, admiring nature in the springtime, and in total awe of the fact that it is possible to drive for miles without seeing another car, I had one of those moments:

[New York]* proved too much for the man,
(he couldn't make it)
So he's leaving the life, he's come to know.
He said he's going back to find,
(going back to find)
what's left of his world, the world he left behind,
not so long ago.

He's leaving (leaving), on that midnight train to Georgia.
(leaving on the midnight train),
said he's going back (going back to find),
to a simpler place in time.
Now, I'll be with him (I know you will),
on that midnight train to Georgia.
(leaving on that midnight train to Georgia, wooh! wooh!)
I'd rather live in his world (live in his world),
then live without him in mine.
(her world, is his, his and yours alone).

He got dreamin', that someday he'd be a star,
(a superstar but he didn't get far).
But he sure found out the hard way,
that dreams don't always come true.
(dreams don't always come true, ah ah, no ah ah)
So he pawned all his hopes, and he even sold his old car,
bought a one way ticket back, to the life he once knew.
Oh yes he did, he said he would.

He's leaving on that midnight train to Georgia,
(leaving on the midgnight train),
Said he's going back to find, (going back to find)
a simpler place in time,
Now, I'm gonna be with him,
(leaving on the midnight train to Georgia, wooh! wooh!)
I'd rather live in his world, then live without him in mine.
(her world, is his, his and yours alone).

So other than the references to moving to Georgia with some random dude, I actually connected with the lyrics -- maybe for just a few minutes, but it made sense. For once, I could understand why this guy wanted to return to a "simpler place in time" -- a place where rush hour doesn't exist, LCDs and the internet aren't staples of every household, where taking a walk in the neighborhood doesn't entail dodging cabs and endless mounds of garbage, and where sitting on your porch on a hot summer night with a cigarette and a cold beer is considered vegging out.

It's okay to dream, isn't it?

*my personalized take on the verse