A Little Bit of Everything

I love good song lyrics. In some instances, a musician’s lyrics have spoken the words I needed to hear or echoed my sadness in a way that made me not feel alone…it’s poetry…but more powerful because not only do the words have meaning and feeling, but the music has feeling too. It’s a beautiful thing. The music makes the poetry more powerful than I am ever capable of creating with my feeble stringing together of words on paper. But then again, I am the weirdo who will have a song or an album on repeat sometimes until the people around me want to run screaming into the street – LOL. (Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” album was one…)

I had never heard of a band named Dawes until yesterday. I have no idea why…classified as “Indie” (and I listen to that genre – among others). Their song “A Little Bit of Everything” is brilliant. Simple and deep.

It starts out with a man ready to jump off the Golden Gate bridge and “join that demographic”. When asked what the problem is, the response is:

‘Oh, it’s a little bit of everything,
It’s the mountains,
It’s the fog,
It’s the news at six o’clock,
It’s the death of my first dog,
It’s the angels up above me,
It’s the song that they don’t sing,
It’s a little bit of everything.

Then the next part of the song is an old man in a buffet line thinking about his life and all the little bits of everything it comprised…disappointment and loss… and now today in this buffet, when the server asks, “Have you figured out yet, what it is you want?” He will have a little bit of everything…but he’s smiling – so we know he “gets it” now and will savor every little thing.

I want a little bit of everything,
The biscuits and the beans,
Whatever helps me to forget about
The things that brought me to my knees,
So pile on those mashed potatoes,
And an extra chicken wing,
I’m having a little bit of everything.

Then the song moves to a couple getting ready to be married and the woman is all wrapped up in the details. He says “Baby, can I make an observation? You don’t seem to be having any fun at all.”  “She said, You just worry about your groomsmen and your shirt-size, And rest assured that this is making me feel good, I think that love is so much easier than you realize, If you can give yourself to someone, then you should.”

‘Cause it’s a little bit of everything,
The way you joke, the way you ache,
It is waking up before you,
So I can watch you as you wake.
So in the day in late September,
It’s not some stupid little ring,
I’m giving a little bit of everything.

Next the song wraps up with these words:

Oh, it’s a little bit of everything,
It’s the matador and the bull,
It’s the suggested daily dosage,
It is the red moon when it’s full.
All these psychics and these doctors,
They’re all right and they’re all wrong,
It’s like trying to make out every word,
When they should simply hum along,
It’s not some message written in the dark,
Or some truth that no one’s seen,
It’s a little bit of everything.

The matador and the bull – both sides of a situation or opposing paradigms. All the things you are supposed to do in life – the “daily dosage”. Beauty. Shades of grey – there is no black and white to life. Over-analyzing everything instead of enjoying the moment and humming along. There is no one thing that makes everything. No one thing that fixes everything. No one thing that makes our life turn out they way we thought we wanted or not. No one thing that makes everything okay.

Life is a little bit of everything. It’s supposed to be. Sometimes you look up only to realize years have gone by and nothing it seems was really accomplished – just a lot of little bits of everything. If you are sad, it isn’t just one thing. Happy isn’t just one thing…Life is comprised of all these moments…moments and decisions followed by more moments and decisions…there is a beauty in that. If we pause to savor the moment while it’s there, we live a deeper, more yummy life. “Love is so much easier than you realize”…savor it…do it…feel it…give it…be it. We all seem to look for the “one” thing – the one answer – the one reason – there is no “one”. It truly is a little bit of everything.

It’s fucking beautiful…so simple, yet so profound. That will be the name of this new blog. A Little Bit of Everything. Because that’s the stuff I share…the stuff of life.