What Is Your Life’s Theme?
I’ve always been a lover of music, and for as long as I can remember, I’ve always chosen special songs as my personal theme songs. When I was younger, the songs would always express vanity (half jokingly, half seriously). For a example, in the past I had chosen songs like: “Heartbreaker” (Zapp), “Cutie Pie” (One Way), “Sexy MF” (Prince), or “Beautiful” (Snoop), to name a few. (See? I was really in love with myself! LOL!) When those songs would come on, I’d actually sing them (usually in the mirror) in tribute to myself, often changing the words to give a more accurate depiction of how I really felt about myself — or, how I thought others felt about me (or the way I felt they should feel about me…LOL!).
When I grew out of that phase, I chose more serious theme songs that had more depth and was able to articulate a different, and perhaps more important aspect of my being. As I matured, other layers of my personality started to surface. During this time, my theme songs changes to things like: “Searching” (Roy Ayers), “Me” (Erykah Badu), and “Wildflower” (New Birth). There are even a few instrumentals that I feel captures my spirit, namely, “Valdez In The Country” (Cold Blood).
Plenty of people that I know have shared with me that they also have elected certain songs as their personal theme songs. Some of my friends even have alter egos. ( I also have an alter ego, but thats for some other time.) It’s not uncommon for music, or any other art form to pronounce certain aspects or our personalities, resulting in us feeling empowered, understood, or even cause us to check ourselves.
Most of, well… all of my favorites musicians can do more than sing. I prefer artists who write their own material because the vibe, as well as the lyrics comes from their hearts, souls, and experiences. Their articulation of concepts and experiences are so poignant that people like me adopt their stories as personal themes for our own lives. It’s not only what is said, but how the lyrics, or the groove, is delivered that hits the sweet spot in our souls and make us think, “Thats me!“.
Artists have the power to let their talent and creativity to speak for them, strike emotions, and encourage change and/or self realization. Since life is art in real time, we have the same power. In ourselves lies the power to change things, to inspire each other, and promote self awareness. And, everyday we are presented with opportunities to do any or all of those things.
As we journey through this life, we are creating our themes. Whether we’re living our dream lives, or dreaming of a better life, our themes will change genres yet remain eerily consistent.
Somewhere on this planet, at any given time, the song that you chose as your theme is playing — and someone, somewhere is listening to it. In comparison, there is always someone watching you. The things that we do, regardless of how meaningless and insignificant they may seem to us, are influencing others. Someone looks up to you. Someone is envious of you. You are the template for someone who disparately wants to change their life. You are a light for that that person. That’s a lot of power to have, and it can easily be misused.
You have to decide what type of influence you want to have on those who may be watching you. How will you use your voice, talents, and knowledge? What is your poignant message? How will you use your words? How will you pronounce your experiences to people who can learn from you? What is consistent about your theme? Only you can answer that.
Live your life like the songs that you found yourself in, and you will be those songs for someone else.
*BTW, currently, my theme song is “Computer Blue” by Prince.
“We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why.”
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