You know you’re getting older when there are tribute bands everywhere representing the ones you most loved in high school and college. One of my favorite bands was The Doobie Brothers, and I was reminded of a song today that was perfect for my Music Monday message (always the first Monday of every month). I’m asking for forgiveness in advance from my Millennial and Gen-Xer subscribers because I’ve selected a song from the 70’s… my teenage years.
For the last few weeks, our country has been consumed by the Kavanagh hearings. It’s an important decision and as my week has been full of local travel, I have been following along on the radio while driving. But, this morning while running yet another errand, I thought… I need a break. I need some music. I need some fresh air and sunshine. Fall is definitely in the air, and I need to get out of the doomsday commentary and incessant bickering and breathe in the current moment, notice my beautiful surroundings and the changing of the seasons. I need to remember what I believe: That everything is fine, the timing is perfect, and life is always ultimately working out for me. So, I skimmed the channels and accidentally landed on Sirius XM’s “70s on 7”… and by divine providence, no doubt, this song by The Doobie Brothers came right on: “Listen to the Music.”
I hadn’t heard it in years and wouldn’t have thought I would have remembered the words, but they came back immediately, and I found myself singing along. The words held a much deeper meaning for me now than they did in high school and seemed to eerily mirror my current thoughts.
If you let yourself, you could get so far down the rabbit-hole of news and the attending commentary that dread and worry about the future can make you think the entire world is going to hell in a handbag with no hope of ever recuperating. When I start to feel this way, I try to remember that we’ve felt this way before as humans and as a nation… a couple hundred thousand times or so. I remember my paternal grandparents talking about the desperation they felt during the Great Depression. They wondered if we’d ever come out of it. My maternal grandparents worried about polio, Nazis, racial divides, and atomic bombs. Oh yeah… and the lasting detrimental effect of Elvis on our impressionable youth. I remember the lament of my parents as politicians were assassinated and impeached, the Vietnam War raged, and gasoline was rationed at the pumps. I remember feeling frightened by Nuclear bomb drills at school during the Cold War (as if the top of my desk would have helped me!) Imagine the pessimism about the future of our democracy that must have existed for our citizens during the Civil War.
It’s good to be informed. We should do what we can to steer our communities, our nation, and the world in a positive direction whether with our votes, our voice, or our actions. But sometimes, it’s just good to turn it all off and breathe- to remember how resilient we are as a nation and as human beings; to not be so consumed with our worry of the future that we miss the good, the positive, and the beautiful that is right here, right now, right in front of us; to reconnect with the good.
Given all that is going on in the world, our profession, and likely right in your own business and life… this week, don’t forget to listen to the music. Just for a while, invest a few moments relaxing, breathing deeply, and remembering that all is well, things will work out, and we’ve been finding our way for thousands of years. And, we’ll find our way in the future.
All is well. Life is good. And the music plays on… Don’t miss it.
The Doobie Brothers – Listen to the Music
Don’t you feel it growing, day by day
People getting ready for the news
Some are happy, some are sad
Oh, we got to let the music play
What the people need
Is a way to make ’em smile
It ain’t so hard to do if you know how
Gotta get a message
Get it on through
Oh now mama, don’t you ask me why
Whoa listen to the music
Whoa listen to the music
Whoa listen to the music
All the time
Well I know, you know better
Everything I say
Meet me in the country for a day
We’ll be happy
And we’ll dance
Oh, we’re gonna dance our blues away
And if I’m feeling good to you
And you’re feeling good to me
There ain’t nothing we can’t do or say
Feeling good, feeling fine
Oh, baby, let the music play
[Refrain]
Like a lazy flowing river
Surrounding castles in the sky
And the crowd is growing bigger
Listening for the happy sounds
And I got to let them fly
[Refrain]
