Late last night, as I was watching in disbelief as John Mayer makes his guitar do impossible things on his latest live DVD ("Where the light is"), I started wondering about my obsession with his music and his story. 

I thought about the first time I heard "Room for squares" in my beat-up car driving through the streets of Perth, Australia, and how my ears almost complained about the newness of it all, like when you exercise muscles you didn't think you had. 

I thought about the enormous role his music played in my courtship with my wife, how the songs seem to embody perfectly the ups and downs we experienced in our journey to where we are today. 

I thought about the first time I saw him live, speechless after 2 hours spent watching and listening to someone who just seems to GET music and everything that's beautiful about it. 

I thought about the fact that we're the same age, and how several of his blog posts (like when he turned 30...) resonated with me so strongly.

But of course, it's none of these things, and it's all of them at the same time.  It's a deep understanding within me that, wherever I go on this wide-open planet with all its possibilities, I know that musically, John Mayer's got my back.  In his dedication to his craft, the painful perfectionism apparent in the growth we hear in every new project, I know that he's not going to let me down, I know that his music will always be a part of the soundtrack of my life.