Unassigned
Do you ever just feel like turning your brain off? Like just for a few moments to close your eyes and silence all of the bouncy ball thoughts that ping pong about in your head?
I do.
A lot.
Just this week, it has seemed that I have had endless things to ponder, worry about and dissect. I have been back and forth about some major life decisions, hemmed and hawed my way through a certain relationship and experienced that all-too-common fear that my head may, in fact, explode.
That was, until my friend Carole asked me to car-sit for her while she went out of the country. Now, this may sound simple and uneventful to many of you, but for me it was monumental. Not having had a car since I’ve lived in the city, some 4+ years now, I had nearly forgotten how calming and freeing it can be to turn the windows down and the music up and just drive (when Chicago traffic isn’t being a total buzzkill, that is). What was even better was when I turned on her CD player, an unfamiliar yet intoxicatingly catchy pop song started to play.
For the record, I’m not often a huge fan of the pop genre when it comes to true musical merit. Nor do I stand behind this particular song as anything but freakishly fun and upbeat. But for some reason, in that moment, it was exactly what I needed.
It should also be noted that this particular pop ditty doesn’t even have much to do with what I am going through. Or what I imagine anyone is really going through. (Unless the lyrics “I wanna be the body that you breathe on” really hits home with you. In which case, kudos.) Be that as it may, I probably played it on repeat five times that day. And each time, I would smile at the unexpected remedy I had found in a pop song.
So when the music fades, did it solve any of my problems? Or give me some mystical answer for my dilemmas? Of course not. But sometimes, it seems, all we really need to do is roll down the windows, turn on a fun song and let ourselves live in the melody for a moment.
By the way, the song was “Do it for You” by the Ballas Hough Band. Enjoy. And don’t judge me.
