Those of you that know me may know that I’m a fan of Pink Floyd. Well, I suppose now those who don’t really know me also know that I’m a Pink Floyd fan. I never got to see them in concert (please don’t bring that up around my mother–she probably still feels bad about it), but I have most of their catalog on vinyl. For my birthday one year my ex-wife got me this 45 of one of my favorite Pink Floyd songs, “Fearless” from the 1971 album, “Meddle.” An album released nearly one month before I was released into the world. It is a special gift. I framed it almost immediately.
Now…some 20 years later, I realized that I did it the wrong way. Well, wrong for where I am now. If you’ve read the last few posts, you know that I’m on some heavy-duty doses of self-realization. I don’t know that it’s a mid-life crisis, per se, because to be honest, I don’t feel like I’m in crisis. I feel like I’m peeling away the layers of people that I was trying to be for other people and getting down to the core of who I am–for me.
When I framed the vinyl all those years ago, I was slightly OCD and had to have the A side visible. The A side being, of course, “One of These Days.” It is a great track. But it’s not my favorite track. And…to go day after day, staring at that mantra, One of these days... it’s not who I am. Not today. You see, words are powerful. I don’t know if I fully understood how powerful. It’s wild, though, right? One of these days, I will be fearless.
Today was that day. Today I opened the frame and turned the record around. When I wake to each day, I want to see the word ‘fearless.’ It may be just a word, but the word and the song fill me with a sense of…hope? I don’t know if that’s the right word or not, but I do know that feeling like I’m where I’m supposed to be in life right now is a lot easier to swallow if I do it from a standpoint of being someone who faces each day seeing the encouragement of being fearless. Here are some of the lyrics that make it a song near and dear to my heart.
You say the hill’s too steep to climb
Chiding
You say you’d like to see me try
Climbing
You pick the place and I’ll choose the time
And I’ll climb the hill in my own way
Just wait a while for the right day
And as I rise above the treeline and the clouds
I look down hearing the sound of the things you said today
Go down in your own way
And everyday is the right day
And as you rise above the fear lines in his brow
You look down
Hear the sound of the faces in the crowd
It seems to me that the key to a fruitful life is to have a few songs that you hold close to your heart. Some that others write. Some you write for yourself. And at least one or two that you write with someone special. Music is love and life.
Find your melody my friends, fearlessly.
-ATS
Todd Skaggs Writes 