Well, here's a Music Monday that I know my mom will like! She very definitely raised my brother and me on the Monkees. I chose this song tonight for a couple of reasons. One of them is the passing of JoePa. This article does a very good job of looking at his situation and emphasizing that for many people this is not a black and white situation and that we cannot effectively be defined as people by one decision or set of decisions.
The other reason I chose this song is the verse about how, "It was easy then to know...how much to protect your heart and how much to care." That's something I've really had to work on and work out at different times in the infertility process, and it's coming up again as we have the potential to be making progress again. How much do I protect my heart as we hopefully go into IVF? I won't really know until I get there, but my natural inclination now is to guard myself. That sure as hell wasn't my inclination 2 years ago, but it has become my MO. I'm afraid to care because every time I have in this process, I've been crushed by that. Typing this reminds me of a Bible verse that was given to me when I was going under anesthesia for the first time and was scared: "For the Lord did not give us a spirit of fear, but of faith, love, and a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7. Unfortunately, though, going in with faith, love, and a sound mind (or as sound as mine ever has been!) led to nothing but heartache, so I have to find the shades of gray that work for me at any given time.
For my mom and any other Monkees fanatics, I'm putting in two videos of the same song. One is from 97 and actually has all four Monkees together, which is why I'm including it. The other is from 2011 and shows off Peter both singing a solo and breaking out the French Horn. Since he always played the lovable fool on the show, it's easy to forget that he was one of the musicians, not one of the actors.
Funny you should pick this particular song because I tried, most of all, to teach you & your brother that there's only shades of grey. That was one of the biggest life lessons I wanted you to learn & one of the biggest differences between your father & me in philosophy. By the way, still love the Monkees with all my heart - brings me tears to see them :) And I more than ever only see shades of grey. (Inconvenient for an artist - ha, ha.)
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