The Song In My Head and Random Connections

You know how sometimes a song gets stuck in your head and you don't even realize it's there for like half a day and then suddenly you notice it and you think "Dang this could get annoying" and then you go to bed and the track is still playing over and over while you try to fall asleep and you wake up in the morning and it's still there and you think "I might die."?

It happens all the time to me. And this time this particular song has been hanging out in my brain for over a week. I've lost count of the days. But it is seriously trapped. I'm told that if you sing a song in its entirety it will leave, but that hasn't happened. I tried to show it the holes in my ears and my nose and my mouth but it didn't care. It just hangs out, taking up valuable space.

I have a theory about why it's being so stubborn, and I'm hoping that putting the theory in writing will do what singing the whole thing is supposed to do. Let it complete its mission and then find some other brain to occupy. The deal with this one is that it has so many pertinent applications to my life right now, that the lyrics just keep coming to mind, like the background music on a television show.

I'm also hoping this will be kinda like a story where you have a major plot and a bunch of subplots and they all tell their own little stories but in the end they come together. That's the plan in my head anyway. We'll see how it goes.

The picture's a clue to the song I'm talking about. My trouble started with this phrase popping into my head in relation to one of the latest twists on my road to publication:

The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows when


If you've followed this blog at all, I think no explanation is needed. However, I guess you probably also know that my long, winding road isn't limited to my road to publication. The truth is I lead an insane life. I have several friends who call me every few days just to learn the latest because, they've told me, if they wait too long to call they'll miss two or three major stories/crisis. I'm not complaining mind you. I wouldn't trade my life for anything. But I do admit it tends to get a little on the difficult, crazy, weird, unbelievable side sometimes. Like every few minutes. And so that long winding road phrase just keeps playing and playing. 


But there's more. There's this phrase. 


But I'm strong
Strong enough to carry him

So I ask you, how cool is this? Y'all know a little about my battles with the Big C and the Big Red, even though I meant, and still mean, to keep kind of quiet about it. I don't want that to define me. But anyway, I just learned last week that my middle name means "Healthy and Strong". Really! And I never knew. It just seemed really significant. And yeah, "But I'm strong!" pops in my head with every little thing now. 
And moving on. We have the next phrase:
So on we go
His welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We'll get there
For I know
He would not encumber me
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
Ever since I started working at home, I've developed a habit of lunch dates with my women friends. I've had two this week. Headed for a third tomorrow. Have one more planned for next week. My kids are starting to make fun. But here's the thing. All these women are old friends. Some of us go back to when our biggest worries were zits and boys. Now we've been through divorces, losing children, losing jobs, health crisis...you name it and we've been through it.  But every one of them is strong. Stronger than they would have been without their struggles. While we eat we laugh and talk and hug and cry and vent. And then we go home feeling buoyed ready to tackle the day's challenges. So you can see why "So on we go..." would pop up in my brain from time to time.
And moving on:
If I'm laden at all
I'm laden with sadness
That everyone's heart
Isn't filled with the gladness
Of love for one another
This phrase leads us back to ExtraNormal. The reason I know every word of this song is because of a teacher by the name of Mr. Chavez. He taught choir at Orange Grove Junior High, which happens to be in the town of Hacienda Heights, in Southern California, where I happened to grow up. Hacienda Heights is known for being a pretty diverse place. But my memory of junior high is that it wasn't a terribly tolerant place. Which, when I look back, makes it pretty cool that this big husky man--who we both feared and loved--would pick a selection of songs with themes just like this one. It just seems right that a bunch of students who have been taught to be suspicious of one another would stand shoulder to shoulder every day and sing this song. 
Oh, and you're probably wondering where this leads back to ExtraNormal. Well, I'll tell you. I've had a lot of choir teachers, and they've all had an impact on my life in one way or another. But it seemed appropriate that I use Mr. Chavez in ExtraNormal. He doesn't have a big role. He's just the teacher in the opening scene - Mira adjusting to a choir classroom. But that classroom happens to be set in a town very much like Hacienda Heights, called Los Robles. Which may or may not have been the name of the elementary school I attended. 
Mira comes from a place with almost no diversity. And when she comes across some snobs at the school, she comments that she figured a place with this much diversity should be pretty tolerant of each other's differences. Which is what Mr. Chavez is still trying to teach. At least in ExtraNormal. (If anybody knows the man could you drop me a note?)
 And finally, perhaps the most significant reason of all that this song won't leave my head is because I have a little (well, veeeery tall but always in my head little) nephew who took off last week for what I think is his third tour of duty. Now most soldiers know they're going to see battle. And their families worry. And they're all amazingly brave and generous. But my nephew happens to be an EMT, and not just any EMT but one who goes looking for battles. He flies in on a helicopter, snatches up the wounded, drags them to safety, and works to keep them alive. 


So while most moms worry about the number of battles their son or daughter will see, my sis knows that her boy is going to go find them on a regular basis. When she suggested that he'd done his service and should maybe focus on things like, oh...staying alive...he said, "Somebody's got to save those boys. And there's nothing I'd rather do". Wow. What do you say to that?

I'll end with this video. Dare you not to cry.