Despite everything … I feel fine
Despite everything … I feel fine
I received a flood of response from my last museletter titled “Is America Going From Great to Good?” Most all of the respondents thought that we were in decline.
I have been discouraged myself lately about America. Political gridlock and rising distrust in U.S. economic credibility. I just read this morning that if the proposed 2011 budget were implemented our national debt would be increased more in this presidential term than the amount accumulated by the preceding 43 presidents combined. Forty percent of people tell Gallup they have little or no trust in the Federal Reserve. Standard & Poors just downgraded their evaluation of U.S. Treasury Bills. A daily cascade of bad news.
Linda, my wife and editor at home tells me that I should stop reading the papers and that it is getting me down. She insists that I write something encouraging and useful (which I do most of the time). Linda says, “That is what people look to you for.”
So that is what I am going to do.
When people ask me how I am doing lately, I answer that “I feel fine.” For some reason, it has occurred to me often lately that Linda herself is a primary reason that I am fine. I’m in good shape financially and physically … doing work that is deeply meaningful to me with the most competent and encouraging team I have ever worked with – either business or nonprofit.
I have been in the past couple of weeks listening to a song by my all time favorite singer/song writer, James Taylor, that expresses, and I mean literally, just the way I am feeling these days. I asked my ever faithful assistant, BJ, to see if she could dig out the lyrics for this strikingly appropriate song. So for this museletter, I am sending Linda and you a very clear expression of exactly how I am experiencing life these days. In this case, I will let James Taylor carry the message through his lovely poetic Valentine. I hope there is someone in your life that lights you up this way.
James Taylor: Something in the Way She Moves Lyrics:
There’s something in the way she moves,
Or looks my way, or calls my name,
That seems to leave this troubled world behind.
And if I’m feeling down and blue,
Or troubled by some foolish game,
She always seems to make me change my mind.
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now,
She’s around me now
Just about all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now,
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.
It isn’t what she’s got to say
But how she thinks and where she’s been
To me, the words are nice, the way they sound
I like to hear them best that way
It doesn’t much matter what they mean
If she says them mostly just to calm me down
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now,
She’s around me now
Just about all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now,
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.
Every now and then the things I
lean on lose their meaning
And I find myself careening
Into places where I should not let me go.
She has the power to go where
no one else can find me
And to silently remind me
Of the happiness and the good times
that I know, got to know.
And I feel fine anytime she’s around me now,
She’s around me now
Just about all the time
And if I’m well you can tell she’s been with me now,
She’s been with me now quite a long, long time
And I feel fine.
So What About You?
- What do you depend on to get you out of the dumps in this me-first/rights-without-responsibility culture – faith, family, friends, finances?
- How are you feeling these days? Write yourself a short journal entry about what’s running around in your mind and why.
Recommended
- The words from all the James Taylor lyrics can be found (223 songs!) at http://mp3lyrics.org/e9m.
- Below is my all time favorite James Taylor concert album. It is rated 5 stars and available right from this link. It is likely to be the best $15 you will spend anytime soon.
Get the James Taylor (Live)
Album Here!
As always, I welcome your thoughts. You can e-mail me personally at bob.buford@ACTIVEenergy.net,
or converse with the entire community at https://activeenergy.wordpress.com/.
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