30 Day Writing Challenge 1 - 1/17/16: Quote

A Quote You Live By

Okay, I love quotes. I'm a collector of them..... Got 'em pinned all over the place, cut them out years ago from magazines or copied them from books and carried them around forever. But to pick one that I live by, or have based things in my life on? Wow.... I don't know.

My parents said things but it was those same things all parents say...... "If all your friends jump off a bridge, it doesn't mean you have to!" or "You keep crying and I'll give you something to cry about...." Not entirely helpful advice. But that's where music came in........ not that I necessarily followed it any more closely, but it got in my head more easily than via parental lecture.

* "Love hurts" -- Nazareth
* "Love stinks" -- J. Geils
* "Love is a battlefield" -- Pat Benatar
* "Love bites" -- Def Leppard

(And that's just a few on love.....)

But seriously, there's one song that, oddly enough, provided the best quote at a time I needed it most. I've rarely gone without listening to music, ever. The rare exceptions were the couple of weeks after my maternal grandmother's death (age 12) and for about four days after a horrid breakup in my late 20s. In both cases, I just couldn't bring myself to turn on the radio for anything. And by the time of the breakup, I just didn't feeeeeel it. It was the day the music went on life support for me.

The first song I heard or sang? It was something that went through my head and I couldn't help but laugh at my own twisted humor and cleverness, all the while knowing that it was going to be far easier sung than done....

Sun comes up, sun goes down
This ol' world keeps spinnin' around
Not much has changed since you've been gone
I miss ya honey, but life goes on......
"Life Goes On," Little Texas

I sang it with venom, with a shaky voice but still with every ounce of defiance I could muster in that moment. I couldn't always keep that level up for long but in that moment, I could. And I knew I'd be okay.......

Since then, there have been other quotes or lyrics that have been important to me....... "Be particular" (Jill Conner Browne) comes to mind most, but then again I've always been particular. Being particular will get you farther than you think!