When you wish upon a star over Baton Rouge

When you wish upon a star.
Make no difference who you are.
Anything your heart desires.
Will come to you.

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme.
When you wish upon a star.
As dreamers do.

Regardless of what age you are at some point in your life you’ve heard “When You Wish Upon a Star” from the Disney classic “Pinocchio”, sung by Jimmy Cricket at the end of the movie.

And while there’s been numerous versions of the song over the years by different artists, the song’s lyrics send the same message.

No matter how big or small your wish is, if you have enough faith, chances are your wish, whatever it may be, will come true.

In everyone’s life, there is always that one thing or person that we all wish for, something that keeps us going.

Without that one thing, life as we know it would be meaningless for the most part.

In Memphis, which is a city filled with Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Tennessee fans, being an LSU fan here in the Bluff City is almost the equivalent of being a Republican in Chicago, a bit lonely.

While there are LSU fans in the Bluff City, a couple of whom are good friends of mine, including one that helped me out tremendously with my book as well as a local club devoted to LSU fans, it doesn’t quite capture the same feeling I probably would have if I lived along the Mississippi Gulf Coast or for the most part, the state of Louisiana.

So thanks in part to the wonders of social networking, mainly Twitter, in which I have a gajillion followers (well, not a gajillon, but 1400 or so) I’ve been able to connect with LSU and Saints fans of all ages, giving me an opportunity to have a circle of friends that shared the same vested rooting interest in football as myself.

But recently that circle of friends I have on Twitter has turned into the family I wished I had when I growing up.

While I’ve only attended one LSU football game, which was the 2008 Peach Bowl due in part to the generosity of a girl I met in a sports bar during a church conference, a game in which the Bayou Bengals dominated all aspects against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, I’ve always wanted to attend a game in Baton Rouge, especially a night game in Death Valley.

I always felt that, due in part to spending my childhood listening to Jim Hawthorne at night on WWL, that the true essence of LSU football was captured under the lights of Tiger Stadium.

“They say there’s always magic in Tiger Stadium,” a friend once told me when I mentioned my desire to attend a night game in Baton Rouge.

However, there’s an interesting side note to this.

About a year and a half ago, due to the wonders of Twitter, when the Bayou Bengals played Ole Miss in Baton Rouge I struck up a friendship with a fellow Tiger fan.

While I didn’t make anything of it at the time, mainly because I didn’t know too many LSU fans outside of the friends I had at school, I did not think, as I sit in front of this here computer and write this column, that the same person who was just another face in the crowd would in turn be an important part of my life.

Because of them, all of my wishes to this point have come true.

There’s no timetable on when I’ll make it to Baton Rouge in 2012.

But if it happens, it’ll be a moment to remember.

The Tigers will get a victory under the lights.

The band will play “Tiger Rag”.

And if fate doesn’t play a cruel joke, that person, who was just a face in the crowd a year and a half ago will be there.

I mean, that’s how it works in the movies?

Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing

Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true.