We do?
I mean…put it this way I have zero doubt Portnoy would immediately drop what he was doing and abandon not only his other musical projects but probably his own children to get back together with the band he STILL refers to as his “baby”.
I don't think we can say that with any certainty.
He wanted back in a month after he left. His position has always been that it’s in the DT camp’s hands. He’s made comments a few years back that, theoretically, by now he’d have gotten his “hiatus” thing out of his system, he wanted the band to get together for his birthday bash, and even recently, with Joey Jordison’s death, he made some “life’s too short” comments, being saddened by the fact that Joey was never able to return to the band he helped found (hint hint, nudge nudge). People do age, people do change but let’s face it, Portnoy has that fan mentality which another poster mentioned in this thread, and there’s no bigger Dream Theater fan than Mike Portnoy. But I digress, we can pretend MP has no interest in returning to the band.
My MAIN point still stands. Whether or not Portnoy wants in; he’s not going to ask for the gig (we can say pride, we can say other reasons). And DT isn’t going to approach him unless Mangini voluntarily quits/retires. That’s where I THINK we are at.
How old are you? Serious question. I'm 53, with four kids. In some cases, in MANY cases, what I "wanted" back ten years ago is a footnote in history compared to what I want now. Not to say that I'm fickle or change my mind, but things evolve. When I was 43, I had just gotten laid off (thanks Obama) and was scrambling for a job. I would have taken anything, frankly, because that's what you do to provide for a family. But my goal, my dream was to get back to GE, a company I had left for not dissimilar reasons to Mike and DT's split. I was lucky; I got that opportunity, and spent a year in Erie, 250 miles from my family, commuting every weekend. I wouldn't DREAM of doing that today. Not because it was bad, or I hate GE, or any of those things, but it's not conducive to my marriage, where my kids are today in THEIR lives, and where I want to be in ten years for myself (RETIRED, bitches!). It's not that I'm a totally different person - I'm largely the same - but I've distilled down what is important, and realized it's not the job itself, or the company, but what I do IN the job, and with whom I do it. I'm smarter, I'm more aware, I'm more... in touch.
Another example: I've got an invite to a golf tournament in a couple weeks for a guy I went to high school with and played hockey with, who died of some cancer or another. Ten years ago, living in Philly, Mumming, traveling for work, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. Not a shot, fuck those people. I wasn't great friends with some of those guys, and it wasn't... well, the kids today might call it bullying, I don't, but to put it in language you would understand, maybe there wasn't a lot of respect given me at that time. Today? I'm thinking about going. We're older, we're wiser, we're in different places with different levels of success and self-worth... times change, people change, goals change, what's important changes...I know how to deal with people like that, and if they are stuck in 1985, well, I know how to handle THAT as well.
I think we owe it to these people we look up to to remember that it's NOT 1992 or 2010 anymore. They, too, are allowed to grow, to learn, to evolve, to refine, to become more aware...