WHAT I LEARNED FROM A RAP SOLO

I don’t listen to song lyrics.  Not usually.  I know people who do, who really pay attention and whose favorite songs are the ones with words that they really appreciate.  Some days I feel like I could benefit from being more like them, from being the sort of person who really pays attention and catches the intricacies of a song.  But I’m not, and I don’t.

When I listen to songs it’s because of their melodies, because they have great instrumentation, because the singer is really phenomenal.  Most of the time (and I do feel a little guilty about this) it doesn’t matter what the words are.  They can be totally ridiculous or meaningless, but if I like the music, it doesn’t really matter.  The reverse is also true – even when I appreciate the lyrics, I won’t listen to the song if I can’t stand the music.  I’m probably worse for having these prejudices.  Maybe I should change this about me.  Maybe I should at least try.

It’s because of this, and also because of the nature of popular music, that I don’t generally go searching for nuggets of truth in pop songs.  But I have a facebook friend who has a knack for pulling song lyrics out of their context and presenting them in a way that makes them profound.  She doesn’t change them, she just posts them.  Somehow she makes them seem meaningful.  I don’t know how she does it.

I tend to ignore rap solos.  Since I already ignore lyrics, my chances of finding anything worth finding in a rap solo are more than slim.  But the facebook friend who posts lyrics – she came through. 

“The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, it’s green where you water it.”

I read it.  And then I read it again.  I spend a lot of time peeping over fences at the grass on the other side.  Everyone has better grass than I do.  And right there in that rap solo was the answer to all my problems.  I had been trying to like my grass, even though it didn’t seem all that great to me.  What I really needed to do was put in some effort on my end.   

So I have a new mission in life: to water the grass on my side of the fence.  I should also start listening to song lyrics.  Apparently there are good things to be found if you pay attention.

[the song responsible for this revelation]