Your Life is Now

My older sister has been sharing via email with the lot of us her music box. My life is a book. Her life is a music box.

I think we all have a music box sitting up on the shelf. Songs that get us through difficult times, songs that remind us of happy times; our first love, our last love, the beach, church, 9^th grade track meets. I think music can be as evocative as scent in bringing back a memory. Some songs come on the radio and I am transported back into Mr. Frank’s health class in 8^th grade – 1978. I can feel the heat in that third floor room, smell the stuffiness, sitting behind Ed Vertucci for whom I had a powerful crush, (the bad boys, always the bad boys).

This song hails from the latter part of my marriage. I thought we were going through a really really rough patch. I wasn't wrong. We were just never able to crawl out of the patch. I had a naïve faith in the institution I suppose. But I heard this song and it touched me. I listened to it many times after my divorce; it spoke to me and I was forced to listen. “Would you teach your children to tell the truth? Would you take the high road, if you could choose? Your life is now.”

We only get one shot. We can be the best people we can be, or we can be schmucks. Pick.

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Video

Your Life is Now – John Mellencamp

See the moon roll across the stars
See the seasons turn like a heart
Your father's days are lost to you
This is your time here to do what you will do

Your life is now your life is now your life is now
In this undiscovered moment
Lift your head up above the crowd
We could shake this world
If you would only show us how
Your life is now

Would you teach your children to tell the truth
Would you take the high road if you could choose
Do you believe you're a victim of a great compromise
'Cause I believe you could change your mind and change our lives

Your life is now your life is now your life is now
In this undiscovered moment
Lift your head up above the crowd
We could shake this world
If you would only show us how
Your life is now

Would you teach your children to tell the truth
This is your time here to do what you will do

Your life is now your life is now your life is now
In this undiscovered moment
Lift your head up above the crowd
We could shake this world
If you would only show us how

Your life is now