History Starts Now

You probably have them, too — the sort of friend who always has an appropriate song for every occasion. T. is usually that for other people, but we have friends who can manage to find a show tune or a horrible 80’s ballad (our dear Mr. S.), cantata or hymn selection to suit every mood. This week it was our friend Laura, a Minnesota poet and teacher, who provided the lyrical goodness to our mood.

We’d been discussing the fact that almost every move in a person’s life provides to them opportunities – often unlooked for, and sometimes overlooked – to restructure, reorient and reinvent themselves. The truth of the tautology “wherever you go, there you are” is proven by the fact that while people can change, they usually …don’t. And yet, when we make an effort to live deliberately, we know that we need to take advantage of every opportunity to get our brains unstuck from a rut, and our habits out of a groove. And so, the angst and the struggle of moving is put to good use.

We have bought toys – not electronic ones, necessarily, but real ones, cheap ones, like jacks and marbles and magnets. We’ve drawn and painted and knitted and (badly) crocheted. We believe in the transformative power of play, and hope to always include it in our lives. “We’ve had our second childhood,” T. joked. “It’s time for a second adolescence.” It was said in jest, but what does that even mean? What do we want out of our lives this move? There’s always a new direction in which a person can be pointed.

The word comes from the Latin adolescere and the literal meaning is “to grow up.” Taking that “adolescence” statement seriously, during the growing-up transition, a child grows into their body, and begins to expand their mind. Their emotional development exceeds the simplistic action-response loop it goes through in childhood, and the child evolves as a person. Sounds like a worthy goal, no?

We’ve paid attention to our bodies before – but it’s all too easy to get into the rut of merely worrying about aches and pains and expanding waistlines, and otherwise ignoring a machine which is made to give us much more than we ask from it. Our bodies don’t fail us until they absolutely have to — and serve us incredibly well. What can we do to better them?

Our emotional and mental development never really stop – we are big old geeks, and always smile at the snarky “Every day’s a school day” phrase we often heard from friends in Glasgow. It’s generally sarcastically meant, but it’s true – you do learn something new every day, and why not? We hope to continue to do so forever. We also hope to live out the phrase, “life is too short to be petty.” We realize that pettiness is kind of a personal besetting sin, and we’d really like to learn (and relearn) to just … let things…go. Our new favorite phrase, instead of being disagreeable and defensive is, “You think so?” We’ll let you know how that one goes.

And this is the song which brought goes with our thoughts of the moment – by a group called Five for Fighting (yes, there’s a meaning behind that name). The song is called World, and a hat tip to Laura again for sharing it:

World

Got a package full of wishes
A time machine, a magic wand
A globe made out of gold
No instructions or commandments
Laws of gravity or indecisions to uphold

Printed on the box I see
Acme’s built a world-to-be
Take a chance, grab a piece
Help me to believe it

What kind of world do you want?
Think anything
Let’s start at the start
Build a masterpiece
Be careful what you wish for
History starts   now

Should there be people or peoples
Money, funny pedestals
for fools who never pay
Raise your army, choose your steeple
Don’t be shy, the satellites
can look the other way

Lose the earthquakes, keep the faults
Fill the oceans without the salt
Let every man own his own hand

What kind of world do you want?
Think anything
Let’s start at the start
Build a masterpiece
Be careful what you wish for
History starts now

Sunlight’s on the bridge
Sunlight’s on the way
Tomorrow’s calling
There’s more to this than love

What kind of world do you want
What kind of world do you want
What kind of world do you want
Think anything

Let’s start at the start
Build a masterpiece
History starts now
Be careful what you wish for
Start now

–“World”, click for the song itself; lyrics by John Ondrasik, Five for Fighting.

This is it, – the boxes are unpacked, the new name is on the mailbox. Who are you going to be? What are you going to change? What can you make of this next epoch in your life? Even if you haven’t moved, the sun comes up on a fresh new day, every. single. morning. Choose. Make it good: History starts… now.