Yesterday morning I just happened to catch the Counting Crows on A&E's Private Sessions. It was a great treat as Adam Duritz is a long standing crush of mine. It was agood mix of performance and him talking about the whole musical process. He is a weird tension of happy and melancholy- which is probably why I dig him because that sounds a lot like me. He, of course, was talking about the newest album, but in the midst of talking about the new songs he interjects and mentions the song "Accidentally in Love."
This song was on the soundtrack for one of the Shrek movies, and I was prepared to hate it. In fact when I first heard that the band was doing the song for the movie, I almost had to break up with Adam. But then I heard it, and it broke me down. It really is a great song just about falling in love. Certainly a theme that has been well explored but Duritz brings his seldom heard joy to it. He brought up the song in the interview on A&E because he wanted people to know that he really was proud of that song. He said it is unabashedly about falling in love, and he said I think I did it well - then he goes and recites one my favorite Duritz lyrics (and I have quite a few)-
"Well baby I surrender
To the strawberry ice cream
Never ever end of all this love"
Love, love, love this line. As an English professor I love lines that I can unpack and that use concrete images to express an abstract idea. And to quote Duritz from yesterday's program "How better to describe falling in love than strawberry ice cream?" Amen to that.
I take this line a bit further, for me it isn't just about falling in love: it is about all the sweet, amazing things that take us by surprise in life. But surrendering is the key to really experincing all the sweetness. In varying degress we have to let our guard down, drift a bit from our master schedule or not think so much about our 5 year plan. This does take some practice and knowing when you have happened upon such a moment. For me this really is an updated version of the old sentiment about stopping to smell the roses or even Carpe Diem.
I had a few Strawberry Ice Cream moments in the Bahamas a couple of weeks ago. One of them actually involved my homemade birthday cake and the traditional birthday song. Truth be told I hate it when people sing Happy Birthday to me, largely because it is a tradition I think it pointless and only perpetuated because people don't know how else to honor someone on their birthday. (I especially hate it when wait staff of eating establishments are involved) But on my birthday this year someone changed my mind, a man by the name of Perry Neilly, who is the father of a friend of mine. He was also the baker of my cake and the maker of the homemade coconut ice cream. After I had blown my candle out, he launched into song. Everyone else was a bit hesitant about joining in as most knew about my anti- birthday singing stance, but he didn't and he just started to sing. Let me tell you it was a moment for me. He sang because he really wanted to; it was pure heart that came through that used up song. If you look at my face in the picture you can see the affect it had on me. I was really touched. I surrendered to the sweetness of that moment. I savored it and when I look at the picture I feel it all again.
I am so glad I happened on Adam Duritz on A&E yesterday morning; he reminded me again of what I am after in this life: Baby, I surrender to the strawberry ice cream, in all its many forms.
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