My day job requires me to change my computer password twice a year. I’ve been reminded by the system golems that I have to do this within the next couple of days. Since I seem to always have some song running through my head (no iPod necessary!), the easiest way for me to pick and remember a password is to use a phrase from the lyrics of a tune, and then “‘l33t spell” it, or otherwise twist it up to make it even less guessable.
And given that I type that password dozens or more times each day, and each time that I type, that particular phrase of that song plays through my head, it end up becoming essentially my “theme song” for those six months.
A year ago, not very long after my house was foreclosed on, the song was CSNY’s “Carry On”, and the line I used was “To sing the blues, you’ve got to live the dues”. Boy, had I! Six months ago, when there were other, even crazier issues thrashing my life, and I had fantasies of escaping, it was a hack on the last line of the chorus of Bruce Springstein’s “Born To Run”.
But now what? What should be my theme song for the next six months? What idea do I want to reinforce and celebrate through this winter and spring? In a lot of ways, it acts almost as a meditation, reminding me all of the reasons I picked that song to remind me how I use one of the most important tools in my life, and by extension and consequence, how I want to live that life.
Steely Dan’s “Do It Again”?
Tears for Fear’s “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”?
Adele’s “Someone Like You”?
Got it! That hauntingly, presciently beautiful duet (Woops! Linkrot – fixed!) by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, for the movie “An Officer and A Gentleman” –
her: Who knows what tomorrow brings
In a world few hearts survive
him: All I know is the way I feel,
It’s real – I keep it alive.
The road is long
There are a mountains in our way
But we climb the steps every day
both: Love lift us up where we belong
Where the eagles cry,
On a mountain high,
Love lift us up where we belong
Far from the world below ….
I’ll let you all know in six months how it turns out.