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16 september 2002

Here's the show link. Just click here for full info on Return of the Girl Next Door

do, re, you

I've spent the past couple of weekends listening to a lot of music. This weekend was the muy fabuloso Fiesta celebrating Latin culture in downtown Winston. Such fun, in spite of the rain! Last weekend was the annual Reynolda Folk Festival featuring, in particular, Kate Campbell. With smart, engaging lyrics exploring her Mississippi upbringing and a sound similar to Emmylou Harris, it was nice finally getting to hear her in person, especially the stories behind some of the songs. One lyric struck me just right that sunny afternoon as I lay in the grass on my big blanket. Simple. Nice.

"The river runs deep, reminding me just who I am."

And I suppose that's just what rivers do if you let them. Which got me to thinking of the ways we remind ourselves of who we are when we get off-center. Like, at our core.

It happens all the time. Sometimes, it happens when you go to college that you take those first steps away from yourself. Or maybe you get married and take a few more. You move. You have kids. Most of the time, these changes that we make within ourselves aren't bad ones. In fact, you often find yourself moving toward something even greater than yourself. Education, partnerships...growth. It's good stuff if you're lucky.

Other times...welllll...

That's where the looking back comes in. You put your hands over your eyes to shield them from all the detritus like a blinding sunlight, and look for that space from which you originated. If you're lucky, you didn't veer so far off your life's course that you can't find your way back. Or, you sift through your memory and cobble a path back to yourself.

If your life were a movie, what would its theme song be? Not yours and your significant other's. I don't want to know what your "our" song is. I mean you, and I think you ought to know it too. Because baby, one of these days, you're going to need that song playing in your background. Do you ever have extraordinarily silly moments of imagining that as you make your triumphant entrance into the room, some director cues your song? Hell, you may want it playing as you shimmy your way to the copy machine at work for dramatic effect.

Whatever. You still need a theme song. Something to carry with you. Preferably something invigorating, something optimistic, simple. A song to which we can all boogie with you. It's the song you sing while cutting vegetables and folding laundry. It's you at your most you-ness.

Me? Eh, no big surprises here. "Feeling Groovy", by Simon and Garfunkel. You expected...well...something non-groovy?

I want to know yours, and why. Write me and tell all. Artist, title, the works. Then sing it on your way to the copy machine today. Cause that's just fun.