I admit it. One of my most listened to stations on Pandora is Love Songs on the Radio. I have a special weakness for love songs. Love songs recount experiences both happy and painful, and dreams realized and some never to be. It's music that is often profoundly affirming and that places one within a time line extending into the future. Here, essential needs of humanity find compelling personal expression. It speaks of raw commitment that transcends average experience. It does all this in a context of simplicity and directness. Sometimes it also deals with the tragedy of broken relationships showing that profligacy is really perfidy. At its best it is compassionate and encouraging, filled with humility and grace—painting memorable images of endearment in the mind.
This
blog began with an incident at work Friday. A co-worker of mine in
his mid-twenties was working on a computer software project that
hundreds in the workplace eventually will use. He was deciding upon
what color scheme to use. He said that he was considering lavender
blue. Immediately this phrase took me back to years before he was
born when a song of the same title was popular (“Lavendar Blue,”
1959). I immediately went to YouTube and played a few strains for
him. I suppose he reacted much like I would have when at his age if
some old codger had been reminded of and gratuitously played for me
the “Tiger Rag” (1917)—”That's not bad, not bad at all.”
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