Two Songs

When my 11-year-old was a baby, he used to like me to dance with him while a certain song played --"You're so pretty," by, (I think), The Breeders. The line I remember is "You're so pretty the way you are." He kept liking it as he got a little older and could start understanding the words. He'd ask me to put it on and dance with him again.

A couple years ago, I stopped by to see a special new friend one Friday afternoon, and she told me she'd been listening to a song by the Flaming Lips: "Do you realize?" That song includes the line, "Do you realize ... that you have ... the most beautiful face?" She had been feeling abit down that day and she said she started crying when she listened to those words.

Sometimes I think about music and how it touches people at their most vulnerable moments. It has the power to reach across space and time and reconnect us with parts of ourselves that sometimes seem lost. That Flaming Lips song has some other remarkable lyrics I remember:

Do you realize—that everyone you know someday will die?
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes—let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Whenever I write an article or give a speech somewhere, I try to remind myself that you never know who is listening, and how your words might affect them. This must be an even more powerful reality for singers.

It's wonderful when a song speaks an essential truth. He *is* so pretty the way he is; and she *does* have the most beautiful face. I hope they both always realize this, even when I'm no longer around to remind them.