Doom and Gloom
"NOT!"
Cynicism, dyspepsia, irony, (rarely, sarcasm), bewilderment, amazement, and even the occasional snark often find their way into this blog. Doom and gloom, the grist of media everywhere and especially prevalent in these fraught and parlous times, are strangely absent. Do I know something you don't? Or am I just a drooling optimist? Yes! We all know things others don't, and, as Dave Barry put it,
"I turned 50, which is really not so old. A lot of very famous people accomplished great things after 50. For example, it was during the post-50 phase of his life that the brilliant physicist Albert Einstein produced the vast majority of his drool."
I'm way over 50, and if I'm not entitled to my optimism and my drool, who is? But, tragically, there remain doom-and-gloomers on this planet. A friend heard from one of them today, and complained to me. What could I do but burst into song?
It really doesn't pay
to be a gloomy pill
It's absolutely most ridic, positively sil,
The rain may pitter patter
It really doesn't matter
For life can be delish
with a sunny disposish!*
The doom-and-gloomer, by the way, was distressed about radiation from the Japanese reactor. If she were north of Tokyo I'd say she might have a point. New Jersey? No so much. She was not around to hear me burst into song, and so was spared that potential cause for depression as well. I mention this story because of a subsequent event. It was a clement afternoon here in radiation-free New Jersey, and I took myself out for a galumph. My cellphone was packed with music, and I selected the Field Day album by Marshall Crenshaw to accompany me. It's not a long album, and the 10th cut, Hold It, came on:
Rain on my window
Michael on my radio
737, this room I'm in
This moment won't ever be here again
Try to remember, hold on tight forever
To your life and love every night and day
Hold on and don't let it slip away
Whenever sadness and darkness
Threaten to mess up my day
When the blues come around me
I throw my hands in the air and I say
World's in a hurry
Too many worries
But I don't want to loose everything I've gained
So I tell myself again and again
Try to remember, hold on tight forever
To your life and love every night and day
Hold on and don't let it slip away
And whenever somebody tells you
That all the good times are through
Look into their eyes and tell them
I'm sure surely glad that I'm not you
That would sure surely have been the song I burst into if I didn't have Sunny Disposish in my stock Cheer Up This Instant repertoire. And it would have sure surely been the NP: song below, except I was listening to it during my galumph, not during blogging activities. I try to maintain NP: integrity most of the time.
I haven't heard anything new from Marshall Crenshaw recently. I hope his career is going well, he's maintaining his optimism, and most of all, that he doesn't sue me for quoting the lyrics I found on one of those nasty flashing-light-ringtone-peddling web sites.
This is the chorus of a song by Manhattan Transfer. I don't know if they "burst" into song with it, but I'm sure their rendition is far more tuneful and harmonious than mine. Feel free to find it on the web.
