Here’s a guest blog I did for Stephanie Kuehnert. She another great writer. Check her out.
“You work and work for years and years, you’re always on the go
You never take a minute off, too busy makin’ dough
Someday, you say, you’ll have your fun, when you’re a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you’ll have in your old rockin’ chair
Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think”
Stephanie, thanks for letting me be part of the Ballads Of Suburbia celebration! This is fantastic. What a great idea. I LOVE music! Rock, jazz, blues, punk, metal, alt country, hip-hop – you name it, I’ll find something I like. So I thought this blog would be simple, a real piece of cake. but it’s not. The choices are way too abundant, so many fantastic songs, so many memories.
It took me a while before I realized what my problem was. I was just getting too bogged down in the past. There are so many periods of my life that are so intertwined with music that I just can’t separate them for the type of retrospective inspection they deserve. So what I decided to do was to set the way-back machine to a time way before mine. I placed the dial to 1950 and a fun little song titled “Enjoy Yourself” by Guy Lumbardo. It’s been a constant on my iPod for years, swimming behind Greenday, Grinderman and Greyboy, and it’s never failed to make me smile.
When I was in high school I was a member of the track team. My event was the 100-yard dash. Looking back there’s a couple things I realize now that I didn’t realize then. The true excitement of the event wasn’t so much crossing the finish line; it was everything that led up to that moment. Finding what track you were going to be on, the nervous energy pulsating through your body, setting your blocks, avoiding eye contact with the other runners, sizing them up, trying to keep calm and focused.
Soon you’d enter into the most exciting few seconds of the run. That’s when someone would stand and bellow the all-familiar shout: Runners, take your mark! I’d plant my toes firmly into the blocks, rising up on my fingers, gazing down at the track. All the outside distractions would begin to fade away. I’d take deep calming breaths.
Get set! Arching my back upward, head up, gazing towards the finish line, every muscle in my body tense in anticipation. Taking one deep final breath like I’m about to plunge into a bottomless pool of water. Waiting for it…waiting…waiting, each half-second stretching outwards to its own separate eternity.
BANG! Exploding forward with force and energy, moving with one goal and nothing more, to be the first one across the finish line. Everything else would disappear. I wouldn’t hear anyone cheering. There were no thoughts in my head except the running of the race, my arms and legs pumping, breathing hard, my eyes and will focused. I would be completely in the moment. The more complete I was able to push myself into the moment the faster I’d run. It wasn’t until I’d cross the finish line that the outside world would come crashing back into my head and I’d hear the cheers and the other runners.
That’s how it is with so many different things in life. Like skiing, if I’m coming down a difficult run. I’m there; I’m in that moment. I have to be. If I let my thoughts wander I’m tumbling instead of skiing. When I’m writing I’m hunting for that same moment when everything else disappears and I slip into my story completely and become one with it. Think of a really good movie that you’ve seen or a great book you’ve read – part of the enjoyment, the joy of the experience was that you gave yourself up to it and lived in its moment, you merged into it, becoming one.
Life when it’s at its best is when we’re entirely in the present tense, living in the moment; that’s when we’re most alive, that’s when we’re truly free. Yes, we have to plan and work for the future BUT don’t forget to ENJOY YOURSELF. The years go by as quickly as a wink and it’s later than you think.
