Photo and Blog a Day Challenge-Day 12/28: Can't Go Without

This prompt caught my eye when I started the challenge, and now that the day is here, it hasn't become any clearer. As most days have been, the search for an enticing subject starts early in the morning. What became of the awareness exercise evolved into an introspection in regards to materialism.

So I asked myself throughout the day, "Can I go without this? Not necessarily forever, but even for a extended period of time?"

A toilet. A shower. Breakfast. A car. Warm clothes. Shoes. My reusable water bottle.

Toilets are relatively new in the grand scheme of things. As are showers and plumbing in general.

Breakfast. Yeah, I can just wait until lunch.

I've gone without a car before and got around with public transportation and the good graces of friends with cars.

Warm clothes aren't as important in warmer climates. Likewise with shoes.

My orange water bottle that I've had for a while? Sure, it's great for the environment to reuse it instead of buying bottled water all the time, but is it an absolute necessity? Having forgotten it at home, work, or in my car on several occasions, I can say that it isn't.

When I got back in my luxury of car (not to be confused with "luxury car), what I wanted to capture for "Can't Go Without" was music to my ears. Literally. It was music to my ears.

Even though these next few points aren't at the bottom of the page...a few footnotes:
1. Ignore the fact that my hand/wrist looks disproportionate to my tiny excuses for fingers.
2. Yes I still buy and listen to CDs. (For those of you who are confused, CD stands for Compact Disc.)
3. These two CDs are currently the only two in my car.
4. The Matchbox Twenty album, North, is what's playing in the background (that you can't hear).
5. The track playing is Track 12: Sleeping at the Wheel, my current favorite song, and possibly my new favorite MB20 song. (Definitely top 3)

So yes, my entry for "Can't Go Without" is music. I cannot go without music. The two albums pictured above, are from my two favorite bands. North, from Matchbox Twenty, and Live on the Inside, from Sugarland.

I appreciate all genres of music, but MB20 has been the one band since I first heard them in 1996 that has always provided a soundtrack for my life. From the first singles, "Real World" and "3AM," and the song "Busted," off Yourself or Someone Like You, to "If You're Gone" and "Rest Stop" (Mad Season), to "Bright Lights" (More Than You Think You Are), and now "Sleeping at the Wheel" and "Parade" on the latest volume of MB20 musicology, North, I've been swimming in rocking riffs, floating upon wispy words, and nodding my head in agreement like they know my life.

And Sugarland. Oh, Sugarland. Every album has its songs that have lifted me through times that without music, I don't know how I would have fared. "Just Might (Make Me Believe)," "Want To," "Fall Into Me," and "Love" are just a few. ("Just Might" literally got me through a two and a half day stint in the hospital, including the ER and ICU, but that's a story for another time.)

I could honestly go on about just about every song on each of these bands albums and how they specifically helped me through different parts of my life (and how some continue to help, even years later in completely different situations).

So music, you are it. Aside from the obvious physiological needs, and aside from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Music is my #1 Can't Go Without.

What's yours?