Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A New Metaphor

WARNING: Not for the squeamish.

I promise you haven't heard this one before.

I like to sing. I can sing well, even. Unfortunately for those around me, I can't sing well reliably. I might nail one note and totally miss the next, and that's assuming my voice doesn't crack or I don't run out of breath in the middle of a note.

I sing when I'm alone. I sing when I'm happy. I sing when I'm in a Mood and want to jump up and down on something. I sing when I feel silly (just an hour ago in the grocery store I was singing a bacon hunting song as I went up and down the meat isle looking for it). I sing when I feel like my heart is breaking and my whole soul cries out "Lord, why don't you just erase the world and start over?" I sing in church, but since that's almost mandatory I'm not sure it counts. I sing when I'm walking and I sing during road trips. Anything longer than ten minutes can be a road trip if I feel like singing.

So here's my way of explaining how it is when I have to sing:

Imagine that you're about to throw up, but not quite. The acid is burning in the back of your throat and you know at any moment you're going to decorate your pants, the person next to you, and the ground with your last meal. That's how it is with music and me: sometimes it just comes up my throat and pushes into my mouth and I can let it out or choke to death trying to hold it in.

I did warn you.

1 comment:

  1. Oh my. What a graphic analogy. (:

    I'm the same way - I sing about EVERYTHING. Or hum. I don't even know I'm doing it half the time. Some random thing a person will say, or a sign on the road or whatever, will remind me of a song and I'll start singing or humming it. I think I *always* have a song in my head, and it usually wants to come out! (:

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