Here comes the sun..

I was thinking today about the first Oregon winter I experienced in college. They were much different than our definition of winter here in Wisconsin with our snow, ice and below zero weather. It basically consisted of clouds and rain. After Christmas my freshman year, as the plane descended through the clouds to land in Eugene, I didn't realize that I wouldn't see the sun for three or more weeks. I settled into my winter term class schedule. I enjoyed getting back together with my friends I hadn't seen for a couple of weeks, but my energy level was zapped. It rained daily for weeks and the sky was a constant cover of grey clouds. All I wanted to do was sleep and I didn't understand it. Then one day it happened, a hole opened in that giant blanket of clouds and the sun punched through! More holes opened and more sunlight came shining through and patches of blue sky could be seen! People like flowers started to physically straighten up. Slumped shoulders, after being tapped for weeks by rain, were tall and straight again. After becoming aware of it the first time, I could feel when my shoulders would start to slump and hunch over. It was like even my posture was tired of being pestered by the rain and grey. But those first rays of sun!!! They came shining through and everything perked up and brightened up.

This past month, I've been coming out of a long, cold winter personally. I was determined to head into 2011 better than I was leaving 2010. There were great aspects to 2010 and I won't discredit those at all. I don't want to take anything away from the positive things that happpened last year, but by the end my shoulders were slumped over from a tough year. I was thinking about this as I was walking down the hall at work today to get some water. I'm probably not as aware of my posture as I should be, but walking down the hall I realized my shoulders were straight....I was walking tall (this will draw comments from friends of mine who say I don't need to be any taller). My head was full of positive things and I felt very grateful right then for the great life I have...the people in it, an amazing daughter, health, etc... That's when I started thinking back to that first Oregon winter and when the sun finally punched through those clouds. The song that came to mind was Richie Havens covering The Beatles' 'Here Comes the Sun.'

Here comes the sun,
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's alright

Little darling
It's been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darling
It feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little darling
The smiles returning to the faces
Little darling
It seems like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It's all right

Little darling
I see the ice is slowly melting
Little darling
It seems like years since it's been clear

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
It's alright

Return of the world's worst blogger!

It's not that I'm the worst in stringing together a sentence or a handful of thoughts. Maybe I should label myself the world's most infrequent blogger. For a good chunk of 2009 and all of 2010, I haven't written here. Part of it was laziness and not making it a discipline or a challenge to get out here and write more frequently anywhere on the spectrum of silly to serious. Another part of it was, not wanting to document things that weren't going well and that I didn't want to look back on and see it documented that I was wrong. I've got a great memory, so I know I'm wrong plenty of times, but it's different to look back on something and SEE I was wrong and read just how wrong I was. I think I've gotten a bit better at laughing at myself (alone or with friends) and past mistakes I've made. I'm not a big fan of being human and making mistakes, but I can admit sometimes it can be pretty damn funny.

SOOOOO...2011, a new year and a fresh chance to blog again, perhaps with greater frequency than in the past, OR to drop the ball like previous years....who knows! I'll give it a shot and see what happens. There's no theme for my blog. It's just the ramblings of a tall man going down the road. On my journey, I pick some stuff up and I set some stuff down, but my goal is to only take with me "all that I can't leave behind."

See you further on up the road....
E

You say you want a revolution....

Thanks for your comments and thoughts regarding music changing the world. Here's the not so dramatic conclusion. I'll start by sharing Neil's answer. He simply answered, "No." That he doesn't think you can change the world with lyrics and music. Even though he didn't expound, the answer stood out to me considering who was answering. Neil has written a wide variety of songs from love songs to protest songs. He wrote Ohio and even has a whole protest album (Living With War). In the Greendale album, he obscurely covers a range of issues, but very clearly (for Neil) talks about saving the planet. And here he was, without hesitation, saying that music and lyrics can't change the world.

As I drove last Saturday, I thought about the ideas and definition of change and musical attempts to change the world. Live Aid, Farm Aid, Sun City (Artists Against Apartheid), etc... The desired changes have been to end hunger, end war, end poverty...HUGE ideas. Huge ideas for change that we haven't seen. Were these efforts a failure? The pessimist would probably say they were and the optimist would say that they rose awareness for their respective causes. Raising awareness can be a great thing and can spur on people to make change happen, as my friends said. Changes of this magnitude are a process and music certainly has it's place in the process.

But can music and lyrics DIRECTLY change the world? I say, "Yes." Music and lyrics evoke emotion, love, laughter, tears, sadness, comfort, heartache, passion, anger.... Music and lyrics can attach themselves to memories and moments in time, forever associated with those things. Couples have "their song (or songs)" that they share. On a bad day, a single song can be a ray of sunshine and bring a smile. Conversely, a sad song can bring a tear in the middle of a smile. Music may not bring us out of the economic crisis or reform health care, but music is there regardless. The changes may not be headline worthy, but music and lyrics are constantly changing the world around us through the people we see and interact with.

Personally, I know the buttons that music pushes for me. Ben Folds' album Rockin' the Suburbs always makes me happy. Lucinda William's album World Without Tears is good on a melancholy day when I don't want to get out of a funk just yet. Flight of the Conchords' Feux De Fa Fa always makes me laugh (as does pretty much anything by FOTC). Coldplay's album Parachutes mellows me out (I swear my pulse drops drastically when I listen to that album). These are just examples of some of the songs and albums that have a KNOWN effect on me.

I'd say that maybe I think about music and it's place more than most people, but I don't think I need the word 'maybe.' I love music and I enjoy thinking about how it interacts with the universe and things like 'change.'

So there you have it. Thanks for reading......

Question for discussion

This morning I was watching an interview from a year or so ago. Neil Young was on Letterman and of course discussing a wide variety of topics. One question stood out to me and I thought this could be a good forum to get a variety of opinions.

Dave asked Neil, "Can you change the world with music and lyrics?"

Before I give Neil's response and my own thoughts, I wanted to get yours. Post your thoughts in the comments. In a day or two, I'll give my response with a new blog post.

The History of the Cabin Boy....

If there's one question I get as often as, "What's a fisk?" that question would be, "What's a Cabin Boy?" So many people have asked me that, I can't even tell you a specific name of a person who's asked. That's actually a bit of an exaggeration, I am, however, being extremely proactive and avoiding the flood of questions by telling the story here...

Before we became co-life coaches, Michael TheWise and I were pirate co-captains of a galleon. Despite our usually contradictory commands and practical jokes we played on the crew, we were quite successful pirates ruling the seas. Known well in all of the ports as having the highest approval ratings of any pirate captains among their crews. In fact many of the principles we applied as co-captains are what have given us our success as co-life coaches today. Avast! I be steerin' this tale off course matey!

So there we were, 16 years ago (yes all you math-y people, we were teenage pirate co-captains...iff'n you didn't think you were gettin' a tall tale, you were sorely mistaken), sailing on the smoothest seas we'd ever seen. 12 miles from port we were, as the crow flies, when out of the southwest a squall picked up! I said to Michael TheWise, "Arrgh, the seas be a bit rocky! A tempest be a brewin'! We'll be lucky to get out of this one with our grog." That gave Michael an idea that if we drank all of our grog, we wouldn't lose it. This was also the birth of the term "brainstorm." We shouted orders to the crew to keep the galleon afloat through the storm. When questioned on how exactly, we gave them a blank flip chart and scented markers and instructed them to use the synergies that we'd gained from our last team building excercise. Then we went below deck and started to safely stow (aka consume) all of the grog. For three days, we were tossed about on the sea, when we realized we'd run out of grog. Fortune smiled upon us when we found a dusty old bottle of Creme De Noya (an almond liquor) hidden away in the galley. We also found a bottle of carbonated citrus juice. We soon discovered the two of these tasted best mixed together. It was on this day of fortune, when a cabin boy came below deck to tell us the storm had passed and we were docked in the port, not a scratch on the galleon and no souls lost. To celebrate, we promised the cabin boy we'd buy him a drink at the first pub we came to. For 16 years, we never found another bottle of Creme De Noya to recreate our drink of good fortune. To keep the cabin boy from starting a mutiny among the crew, we promised him we'd name the drink after him if ever we came across another bottle. We were surprised that this appeased him.

This past Saturday night, Michael TheWise and I walked into the Seahorse Inn, realizing that it was 16 years to the day of that storm. Behind the bar, we spotted that familiar dusty bottle, with the paper seal peeling up as the aged adhesive was giving way. "Ahoy!" we said to the barkeep, "bring us that bottle, some Squirt and a couple of glasses! We'll drink to the Cabin Boy!" Before long we were drinking Cabin Boys with our mateys and tellin' stories of the storm that couldn't sink the pirate galleon Saint Lucifer (Saint Lucifer is a registered Trademark of Michael TheWise, Inc. and may not be used without express written permission from Michael).

And that is the story behind the Cabin Boy.

If I had $30,000....

It's not as catchy as The Barenaked Ladies' song about what they'd do if they had a million dollars, but the title was really set for me by a co-worker. This morning I was greeted by the frightening words that I think we've probably all heard at one point in time. It's not the words that frighten, it's who says them. If the right person tells you this, as I've experienced, it can be a great thing. But this morning it was frightening.... "I had the craziest dream about you last night...." said my co-worker who sits directly in front of me. Apprehensively, I asked, "Oh really?" He elaborated after saying that he had to "get it all straight in his head first." Here's the dream:

Without any background, he received a case with $200,000 in it. From his description, the assumption is that it was legitimately obtained. Although, outside of Deal or No Deal, the only time I've seen cases used for that kind of cash are for illegal activities. I'll believe him though. Since I recently had to have some car repairs done, he thought it'd be nice to help me out by giving me $30,000. Instead of giving him a thank you card, I called HR and told them that he stole the $200k from the company. Apparently in his dream, I'm not very smart, or grateful for that matter. This of course led to things getting really crazy and lots of accusations flying around and a fist fight. Honestly, a fist fight between he and I could be on pay-per-view. The two most unlikely guys duke it out! The entertainment value would be high! After the fist fight, he and I, seperately, were on the run...all over the country. Ocassionally, our paths would cross and we'd get into more fist fights. I'm starting to think that maybe he has some hidden anger issues toward me. I'm going to be a bit more cautious when he's around. As far as I know, we're both still on the run and none of this has been resolved. If you happen to have a dream and see a couple of tall guys awkwardly fist fighting, let me know how it turns out.

I want to clear something up though, and I was sure to clear it up for my co-worker too. Should I receive a gift of thousands of dollars, I won't ask questions or notify any authorities. I'll promptly write out a heartfelt and sincere thank you card.

So if I had $30,000...I could buy a couple brand new 2002 Buick Centurys! (or use the money more wisely, which is likely what I'd do)

What's something ridiculous you'd do if you got a $30,000 gift?

The Anti-Goal

About this time a year ago, I set out with two goals: to grow a beard and to blog. Both were patchy and ill-kept. The beard lasted longer than the blogging did, though. This year I'm back WITHOUT a goal! My lack of a goal is really in itself a goal. I want to write here without perameters and personally imposed restrictions. My mind definitely knows how to stray from the beaten path, but the moments aren't usually recorded. My brain usually keeps a running log of the day and events, searching for significance and meaning, like Arnold's narration on The Wonder Years or JD's internal dialogue on Scrubs. It all plays over a well compiled soundtrack, too. So that's usually the voice that shows in my writing. I want to break out of those boundaries and see what I can come up with. Maybe I'll even pass on something interesting in the process.

Today, on the way to work I stopped to fuel up my car and to get some coffee. At the register, the attendant looked at me and asked, "What's a fisk?" I was confused for a second at such an odd sounding question as she pointed to my button on my coat that simply says, "fisk." I gave her the lightbulb look of recognition that her question was a valid one and explained that last week I was at a show of Schuyler Fisk's, a singer/songwriter from California. What if I hadn't been wearing the button though? How weird would that question have been then? What if people asked strangers questions more often...unrelated to any prompting from the individual? That could be kind of fun and could make life interesting for everyone involved.

"Excuse me sir. What's a flux capacitor?"

The responses to that question from people who know and those who don't could be interesting and imagine the stories they'd tell later in the day. "This guy came up to me and asked me about a flux capacitor. I don't know if he was time travelling and his Delorian broke down or what. I didn't think to ask until after he left."

I answer questions all day. It's kind of my job...knowing things and being able to explain them. I think I might start asking some questions...even if the answers don't matter.