The other night I was lying awake in bed staring at the ceiling. And somewhere between the dancing shadows and the cracks in the plaster I got to thinking about claustrophobia. Webster defines claustrophobia as, "an abnormal dread of being in closed or narrow
spaces." Thinking about it got me thinking about worst case scenarios.

Like Romeo and Juliet for example. If you remember, the story draws to a close when Juliet drinks a vial of coma-inducing poison in hopes that, in appearing dead, she might fake her death and run away to forever be with her love, Romeo. Everyone is thoroughly convinced that she’s really dead…including Romeo. He kills himself. She kills herself. The end. Its a real downer.

But I got to wondering: what would have happened if Juliet had accidentally drank a little too much of the drug? Like what if the chemist had determined how much she was to take based entirely on her body weight – but what he didn’t know was that Juliet had recently been dieting in preparation for her romantic runaway with Romeo and, in doing so, had lost nearly 20 lbs – completely throwing off his calculations and knocking her out for an additional 12 hours – just long enough for them to bury her alive?

And what if, in a symbolic gesture, her family decided to bury her with her beloved ipod – you know, because music was such a big part of her life – and thinking it would add to the symbolism, Juliet’s mother decided to upload some of her own favorites onto the peculiar digital device – BUT in attempting to do so, she accidentally erased the entire library, replacing nearly 80 gigs of music with a single solitary album!? I mean, can you imagine waking up in that coffin – your only source of solace and hope found in the realization that at least you have your ipod – only to realize that all of your music has been replaced by your mom’s Abba’s greatest hits cd?! Oh, the suffering…

Then I got to thinking, if I was buried alive and had to listen to the same album over and over and over and over for the rest of my life, what would I choose? Or what if I wouldn’t die and God, in all his mercy, decided to let me choose 5 songs to listen to for the rest of eternity? How could I even bring myself to make that choice? What would I choose!?

So I spent the rest of my time lying in bed trying to answer that question. And after much thought, here are my choices. I was even able to find links directly to the songs so you can have a listen – enjoy!:

1. Moonlight Sonata – by Beethoven

2. While My Guitar Gently Weeps – as played by Jake Shimabukuro

3. Hide and Seek – by Imogene Heap

4. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence – by Jeff Macare on the "Communion" album

5. Two Step – by Dave Matthews Band  (Live at Central Park)

(I am hesitant to even link this one because the
quality is so poor and its missing the best 4 minutes of the song on
the tail end. The song is ok. But this particular rendition &
performance is just phenomenal.)

Honorable Mention:

6. Until the Sun – by Pax 217 (Also missing some of the best parts…namely the outro)

7. Aqueous Transmission – by Incubus

Alright, there’s my five. I’d love to hear yours. What say you? Eh? Eh?