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If you’ve been reading
“Reporter’s Reflections” lately, you should have noticed two things. For
the last two weeks, I didn’t write it, and starting this week, it has a
new name.
Let me thank
Judy
Wolfram,
author of “Waste Not, Want Not,” and
Lisa
Sheldon,
creator of “Bright Ideas,” for filling in for me while I was on
sabbatical. Ladies, you did a wonderful job-- especially at such short
notice. Thanks a million and then some.
“You’ve got
problems, I’ve got problems, I can tell.
Here’s my remedy, such
good therapy,
It’s called
‘shake it well.’
Whatever
your ailment, you’ll find curtailment,
If you shake
it well.”
The Dramatics, “Shake It Well”
When I first
heard of the social issues in
Afghanistan,
the one fact that brought the suffering to life in my mind was that the
citizens were not allowed to listen to music. I could not picture in my
mind genocide, murder, rape, mayhem or chaos, but I could grasp the
oppression of a world without music, and just how lost I would be, how
empty I would be in such a world.
Music takes me away, and
when I am away (from work), I listen to music.
I love
disco. (Much to Frank’s
dismay.) Make fun of me all you want, but I was a child of the 70’s,
circling the roller rink in skates with pink pom poms on Saturday
nights, where I could boogie-oogie-oogie till I just couldn’t boogie no
more.
You could learn a lot
about life from disco music.
Depressed?
Feeling blue? The Dramatics suggest you “shake it well.” Seems a little
silly, but in all actuality, exercise can relieve stress and anxiety.
How can you dance and be depressed at the same time? You can’t. In their
song, “Keep on Dancin’,”
Gary’s
Gang says, “As long as you’re groovin’ there’s always a chance.”
There’s
always a chance. For what? For whatever you want--happiness, growth,
change.
In their
song, “Play That Funky Music,” Wild Cherry discusses change.
The song is
the story of a singer in a rock and roll band who needed a change.
Everything around him “got to start to feelin’ so low” that he decided
he needed to switch to disco.
“Now first it wasn’t
easy,” he sings, “changing rock and roll and minds.” Change was hard for
him. Others didn’t accept the change, and he struggled. He struggled so
hard in fact, that he almost gave up.
“Things were
getting shaky, I thought I’d have to leave it behind.”
He found the struggle
for change was worth it in the end.
“Oh, but now
it’s so much better (It’s so much better) . . . I’m funkin’ out in every
way, but I’ll never lose that feelin’ (No I won’t) . . . of how I
learned my lesson that day.”
Life is a
dance. In order to enjoy life, you have to get into the groove. In the
past, I have suggested that folks take a vacation, take a break, take
time to get away. If you can’t get away, let music take you away.
I suggest a trip to
Funky
Town.
It’s a “town to keep you movin’, keep you groovin’ with some energy.”
Long live
disco music.
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