It was the first time you heard a particular note, drum beat or electronically created sound that made your ears tingle, your heart skip a beat and resonated with your soul. This is “My Song” – a series where the music that makes the person is spotlighted. James Bullock writes about a song that reminds him of the hot summer days of 2005.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since the year 2005. For me, the twentieth year of my life wasn’t something to celebrate. I was still reeling from the death of the only grandmother I had known my entire life. My aunt – one of my best friends – was suffering from colon cancer and would succumb to death before the year’s end. The home that grew up and still lived in was breaking down left and right. In the middle of the summer, I would be inside a house with no air conditioning, no running water, and if a storm (no matter the severity) came up, no electricity. I never thought in my wildest nightmares that my life would turn out the way it had up to that point.
Thankfully I was blessed with a simple activity – an oasis that even under the hot, oppressive sun proved to be a relaxing – cutting grass. With a push mower moving in front of me (that would cut off at any given moment if its blades didn’t appreciate grass at a certain height), I work from sunup until, at times, sundown. I would move through the acre of land, burning through batteries running my CD player (the struggle was real) while I listened to the various albums I purchased with the little entertainment budget I had at the time; focused solely on my current duty and nothing else. One tune always put the situation in perspective: “Highway Song” by System of a Down. For me, it was the epitome of my hopeful future – being able to look back on the times I was currently experiencing like so much road in a rearview mirror. I would be happy to have passed the figurative sign posts that signified each problem, stressor, negative feeling and/or thought, yet could joyfully remember the simplicity of the struggle and the person it created.
