Day Two- The Blessing of Music

"Ah, ha, ha, ha- staying alive, staying alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha- STAYING ALIVE"

Disco music. You have to love it. (grin)
Wait. What?
You don't?

    I don't blame you. It's not my favorite either but disco music and I have a strange relationship; one that started in the womb.
    See, I don't like disco music. You won't find disco on my iPod and I won't be downloading it from iTunes any time soon.
    As far as the Bee Gee's song, "Staying Alive' goes, I know two words to the lyrics. Are there more?
    Disco balls -spinning round and round- while people who decided they wouldn't be a hippie, thought wearing polyester suits were the ultimate outfit to being groovy.
     They were sadly mistaken, probably lead astray by bad disco music.
     But I digress.

    Disco music and I go way back. Apparently, while my Mom was pregnant she went and saw 'Saturday Night Fever.' There by subjecting me to a whole movie of disco music. The horror. It was torture. I was forced to endure the sounds of disco and John Travolta.
    And I was never the same.
    After that, when ever the fast beat, whirlwind rhythm of disco would venture across the air waves, (which thank goodness grew less and less as one hit wonders took over the radio)- I would start dancing.
   The boogie fever would not...
   Could not be stopped.

   It's like the Pied Piper playing his flute, the sweet sound beacons and I must answer the call.
   And then I'm a disco fool, dancing the hustle, the sprinkler, and whatever all those other crazy moves are called. My children know them. I should be able to teach them break dancing and eighties dance moves, not disco. Urghh.
   I must have been brainwashed in the womb.
   A child born in the seventies, cursed by John Travolta. So I don't like disco music but I'm irresistibly drawn to the beat every time I hear it. :) (small confession, I do like one song. "Walking on Sunshine.")
    How is disco music a blessing? I'm not sure it is. (GRIN and completely kidding.) Roller skating rinks wouldn't have been so popular without it.

   Music is a blessing. And by my parents exposing me early and often to different expressions of this soul stirring sound, I have found that our journey of faith is not only uplifted by music...But measured by the songs we keep in our heart.
   The songs that we combine with our memories so that sometimes all it takes is a few notes of a gently cherished melody to remind us of our love. Of our faith.

   Such a blessing of music, starts in infancy with lullabies; sometimes hummed; sometimes sung softly. The lyrics not always correct and the voice not always perfect but with love...
   knowing we are loved because the music is expressed with LOVE.
   We are forgiving as children if our parents' voice doesn't sound good. We don't care because we are listening to the emotions and those are far more powerful than a perfect octave range. (Although a song sung with love in a beautiful singing voice is a work of art. I'm just thankful that as small children my Bean and Abu were more interesed in being sung to, rather than my scratchy voice.)
    We sing to our babies, with tales of itsy bitsy spiders and pat a cake. Our children learn songs of hope, peace, and reindeers for Christmas concerts.
   And as teenagers we crank it up while driving and let our wildly, crazy, and certainty not sane hormones sing along with music by singers that clearly understand us better than our own parents.

   At weddings, funerals, and special celebrations do we not have some kind of music even if it's only from some one's CD player?
   We honor these events with music that is specially chosen for it's expression.
   Hero hottie and I had the most difficult time choosing a song for our wedding. We liked so many types of music and so many different songs but we couldn't find one that expressed the way we felt.
   Which was love, hopefully happily ever after.
    So we picked a song; sweet and innocent. It was perfect for the time and when life is too gritty or rough I play that song to bring me back to a less complicated time.

    Music surrounds us and if we would journey quietly into nature with hushed reverence and without gadgets stuck in our ears we would find that contrary to the beliefs of humans, who have this mistaken idea that we have created everything first; we will find that music was already apart of nature long before we drummed our fingers with impatience.
 
Music- 
    It's in the wind blowing and rustling.
   It's in the songs of birds and the buzzes of bees and the movement of trees.
   And without this natural rhythm we would live in a world of staccato busyness, artificial and forced, losing the words to an ancient song.
   In this ancient song that we were given, melodies like the beat of our heart, the soft even breathing of a newborn, the chorus of crickets greeting the dusk, we are blessed.
   I have to conclude that our journey of faith is not supposed to be a silent one.
   But one filled with music.

Welcome to the Future

      I saw a sign that boldly proclaimed in bright red letters, 'WELCOME TO THE FUTURE.'

      Since I could see pass the banner I figured they were right because a few seconds later I drove straight into it. My future. Amazing.
       It looked suspiciously a lot like my present.

       Sarcasm aside, the sign was in front of a cell phone store. Apparently, their cell phones are from the future because if you went in there and bought one, then you're using super cool technology, almost like the Jetson's. Of course, back when that cartoon was drawn, I think people were hoping that by this time in history we would have flying cars, robots, and intergalactic adventures. Mmmm, we're close. We have an animated lizard that sells us car insurance and tons of sci fic movies to warn us of the dangers of making robots.

        Don't ya know that if you make robots too smart that eventually they take over the world? It's incredible, but robots of the future are nasty. I know this as fact because all the movies say so.
        Apparently, they aren't lovesick Rosies that do all your cooking, cleaning, scrubbing, and menial labor work so you can shop more.

       No wonder the robots go crazy, they got tired of cleaning and cooking. The science fiction writers never go into details of why the robots decide to take over and we always thought it was just for world domination .     Nope, it's just like I thought, scrubbing the toilet one too many times will drive you insane.

       I love technology though. Hero hottie bought an iPod touch earlier this year and between the four of us it's always in use. When I was a kid, I would make cassettes of my favorite music, then it was CD's, now I just make Playlists. All my favorite music with just a touch. Some time in the future they won't even sell music CD's.
      Of course, I should worry about the Rise of the iPods. Because when they decide to take over the world we will all be forced to listen to elevator music, or worse...Britney Spears.  All the time. Urghh.

     We make such a big deal about the future because of fear. Imagine for a moment that you knew nothing bad would happen in your future or in the futures of your loved ones, would you worry so much about it? Would you even think about it? Wouldn't it be easier to live in the present?
      'Don't Worry, Be Happy' could be true because we wouldn't be worrying about success, buying groceries, braces, and raising decent human beings.  We would focus on our present. On the moment.
  
 Instead....
  
     Those poor science fiction writers, they must just stare at their computers or their iPods, worrying about the day their devices develop the ability to laugh like an evil madman and take over the world. Wa ha ha.
      I stare at my lovely children and worry about the day they turn into...scary movie music here...TEENAGERS.
      If age ten is the movie trailer than I think I'll pass on the film. (Grin)

     There are plenty of famous and not so famous people that wrote all kinds of quotes about not worrying. Such as Benjamin Franklin (He was in that famous group). He wrote, 'Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.'
 
     Silly guy. I don't worry about what may never happen, I spend countless minutes thinking about things I know will happen. And the last piece of advice about staying in the sunlight...he was just warning us against vampires.

    And then there are people in the not so famous group, like hero hottie, who tells me not to worry....
while he's secretly worrying (at a DEFCON 1 level,) about the fate of everything.  :)
     
    Anyway, the future is unknown; isn't written in stone: yet is determined by every past choice we have ever made. No wonder people worry about the future.
  
    But I guess I'll try not to worry too much, after all 'tomorrow is a new day.' And if I get too bored living in the present I can always drive pass the cell phone store where they're always ushering in the future with a bold and bright banner.