Introducing…Monday Meaning & Media

Image Courtesy of Author (c) 2023

Folks, over the next several weeks I am going to roll out a series of cute days of the week-themed articles. The first one actually occurred last Friday…

Being a Good Person is Simple but Difficult

You will have to wait to find out the others, but here, for the first time, is Monday Meaning & Media. And yes, I know it’s Tuesday…

With most of these articles I will pick a song or other form of media that meant something to me and do my best to explain it to you. But, today, I am going to do something slightly different.

Since I just started writing a few weeks ago I feel like I should share a little more about myself. Today, to do just that, I am going to attempt to provide you my list of inspiration, chronologically, as far back in my life as I can remember. I’ll limit it to 50 so you can get back to your own life.

Here we go…

1. I grew up in a model home in a new neighborhood…maybe kinda like the Bluth Family. One thing they missed putting into the TV show was how wonderful it was to go through childhood as a bunch of other homes are built around you. Specifically, when companies built where I grew up, they dug basements and created HUGE dirt piles. Those dirt piles, to young kids, became a canvas for adventure, design, and many other forms of creation. That dirt pile was my first work of art.
2. When my grandmother told me, “If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life. Take care of yourself first SO that you can take care of others.”
3. When my other grandmother told me, “Work hard, but play hard too.”
4. When my mom told me the only PG-13 movie I could watch was The Fellowship of the Ring.
5. When Gandalf said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”
6. When I heard The Beatles sing Blackbird for the first time.
7. When Jeff Buckley sang Hallelujah.
8. When Pippin sang Home is Behind.
9. When Pandora gave me Mumford and Sons.
10. When my college professor gave me a two year academic road map in two minutes.
11. When I read, “Everything in life that does not kill us makes us stronger.” Thanks Friedrich.
12. When my first commander said I could study abroad.
13. When my future wife gave me her number.
14. When my Flight Commander trusted me with my first command.
15. When The Tallest Man on Earth sang The Dreamer.
16. When my professor said I was good at foreign language phonics.
17. When I first listened to Wilder Mind on my first deployment.
18. When Leon Bridges sang Coming Home.
19. When Marcus Mumford sang Believe.
20. When Mumford and Sons and Baaba Maal wrote There Will Be Time…last night.
21. When I saw my first daughter for the first time.
22. When Macklemore sang, “I recommend that you read The Alchemist.”
23. When Macklemore sang Growing Up.
24. When I heard Tightrope, saw The Greatest Showman, and realised Tightrope represented how I felt about leaving my wife and child for my second deployment.
25. When my cultural mentor said I make very fine glassware.
26. When I purchased Apple Music and created, on the advice of my brother, my first playlist.
27. When I saw Don Cheadle in House of Lies…twice.
28. When the House of Lies production team decided to place a bottle of Stranahans on the kitchen table.
29. When Iron Man realised the team was more important than his ego.
30. When Captain America only knew how to do the right thing.
31. When Uncle Lucius sang Keep the Wolves Away.
32. When I visited Stranahans for the first time and heard their creation story.
33. When I saw my second daughter for the first time.
34. When Gary Clark sang This Land.
35. When Aaron Watson sang The Ghost of Guy Clark.
36. When Noah Kahan sang False Confidence.
37. When I created a playlist for my daughters and added Only Love, by Mumford and Sons as the first song.
38. When Luke Bryan sang Most People Are Good.
39. When Judah and the Lion sang Help Me to Feel Again.
40. When Dermot Kennedy sang, “We used to be Giants, when did we stop?”
41. When Ted Lasso threw that dart.
42. When I read Mihaly’s FLOW for the first time.
43. When I saw my third daughter for the first time.
44. When Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan sang Buy Dirt, and it inspired me to buy dirt.
45. When I realised that Hopeless Wanderer was a perfect verbal representation of my relationship with my wife.
46. When Aloe Blacc sang Family.
47. When Ed Sheeran sang Salt Water.
48. When I realised and wrote a love song parody of Tightrope for my wife.
49. When Ted Lasso reinvented total football.
50. When I heard Darius Rucker sing “If I never get to heaven, hell, I’ve already been”…while writing this article.

Now, if you can, go inspire others.

Have a GOOD day!

End.

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