Changes in Attitudes, Changes in Latitudes

What am I thankful for…

I was riding home from working on the farm yesterday. The day was clear and not too hot and I had the top down in my Jeep. It was one of those times that just seem to fill you up. I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t feeling particularly good when I started out and the change in my mood was a good surprise. Obviously, a ride in a convertible with the top down is a pretty good way to improve your outlook all by itself, but there was a bigger factor that made me want to write…

As I got ready to leave, I dug through my old CDs for something to play and came across a custom disc that I had made of the best songs from Jimmy Buffett. The first song on my disc was Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (see link). As I listened to the song, so many good memories from the years began to flood over me and I couldn’t help but smile…more importantly, the lyrics spoke to the optimism and joy that I needed to get through some of the things I’ve been wrestling with lately.

I grew up in Florida, where Jimmy Buffett is revered as a demigod, but most people view him as just another singer with a strange following of drunken beach-bums. It’s true that a lot of what Buffett does for me is wrapped around the images and memories of my home…of the beaches and the easy way of living. But I also recognize Buffett as one of the better poets and story tellers of our time. A lot of our generation’s poetry can be found in the lyrics of songs and I have always considered artists like Buffett, Paul Simon, and others as the great poets of our day.

That someone can write something that makes me feel so good is a special gift. I don’t know these people and will never meet them. I am sorry that their art takes so much away from their privacy, but I understand what drives people to search out these artists. They share a part of themselves with us and, depending on our own lives and memories, we make a connection to their work (and to them). It’s a sign to me of what we share that I can listen to someone else’s thoughts and connect with so many of my own dreams and memories…it was a very good day!