ludio, thanks SO much for your sweet comment! :) I really appreciate the kind words. Not sure when you left this, but my apologies if it’s been a while. I haven’t done anything with my tumblr page since opening it, but am hoping to soon. Did you find me on youtube? Thnxs again!
…sweat dripping from my forehead…eyes red from fatigue….you’d think I just finished hiking up Mt Everest. Almost. After days & nights of work I was putting the finishing touches on a cover song I’d worked up for youtube. My masterpiece was almost finished & I wanted it to be something EPIC! Something wonderful! Ever been there? Maybe you run a business, raise kids, play football… whatever it is you’re building, you want the end result to be steeped in sweet victory! I’m no exception.
So, I toiled. 4am in the morning. I really need sleep. No…NO! Got to make this perfect! Polish…shine…re-polish…mmmm….this song is starting to sound sweet to my ears. Finally, after depriving my body of rest, opening myself up to a wicked cold & probably trimming a year off my lifespan, I posted my creation online. I felt like what I imagine a mother who’s carried her baby for 9 long months & was about to deliver would feel…an awesome sense of relief, pride & accomplishment. ”People are gonna lose their minds when they hear this!”
The comments starting rolling in! Many of them wonderful…BUT, and here we go…many of them “not” wonderful. In fact several, downright mean-spirited. WHY? Had I sang horribly off key like some of those early season american idol wannabes? Was I really a talentless oaf & just didn’t know it?
My error was spelled out in the following comment left in response to my video: “Ha..ha.. you sang the wrong words you fu@#ing idiot!” And there were many comments like this.
Yeah, I sang ONE incorrect lyric. Big deal. Forget the fact that while recording this I was drinking less water so I wouldn’t have to go to the bathroom thus enabling me more time to craft my magnum opus. Forget the beautiful harmonies. You blew one lyric Chris…you…suck! The camera inside their minds zoomed in on one tiny error & ignored all that was good or possibly even great about the song.
It got me thinking, don’t I do this in life? ”I had a terrible day today! I stubbed my toe getting out of bed! The line at the bank was unacceptably long!” Of course I ignored the fact that I was “able” to get out of bed today without a nurses assist. Or that countless people in other parts of the world have no money to put in a bank. Heck, enough food to eat daily would be a luxury for them.
Maybe when people say hateful words, I have a “choice” how to respond. A wise man named Tony Robbins once said, “You control your life by controlling your reactions to life.” Hmmmmm.
I’m guessing the haters hate, because that camera inside their heads isn’t focusing on what’s wonderful, exciting & beautiful about life. It’s zoomed in on everything they “perceive” sucks.
They must be miserable…
So maybe I have a choice even in how I respond to my own mistakes…or supposed mistakes. :) Remember Rudolph the red nosed reindeer? Even Santa Claus, that jolly old symbol of generosity & purity made errors in judgement when it came to Rudolph. Everyone, Santa included, shunned that loud shiny error/mistake of a nose he sported around. But in the end…well, you know the story.
