This song came on the other day and I started crying for no real reason. Then I started thinking: it was because I was genuinely happy for the first time in a really long time, and it took hearing this song to awaken that emotion and kind of realize that my life is actually pretty good.
The power of music to awaken such emotions never ceases to astound me, and while I typically utilize music for its healing and energizing power, this experience was more like a revelation.
I’m the type of person that has notoriously bad luck and a notorious negative outlook on life. People call me a hater, but my job, as a critic, is to call it like I see it.
One of my favorite books ever is “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me“, a modern Odysseus tale infused with much drugs and realizations on a college campus (it’s about Cornell in the 60’s and worth so long).
For the last nearly five years since graduating college, I’ve been very lost at times. The identity that I clung to for four years and my friendships that soon dissipated (the real ones lasted) threw me into the shitter. And then, towards the end of last year (‘and I can thank real friends like Hec for this’), a trigger went off in me. Less talk, more walk. Meet anyone you can, soak every bit of knowledge you can, and immerse yourself in life.
I was crying because for the first time in my life I genuinely feel like I’ve reached a modicum of success, and, through my own will. Success is a weird feeling, and one I was unfamiliar with for so long. I forget what it feels like for everything to feel “right”.
I’m not a millionaire. I’m by no means a made man. But for the first time in my life, everything looks up.
When life throws endless curveballs and a stream of seemingly endless negative vibes your way, you start to forget about the little things in life. Music brings me back to that.
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