Karen Carpenter

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I’ve been thinking about Karen Carpenter lately.

Strange that she’d be on my mind. I never knew her. Our paths never crossed in life; well, other than a few songs on the radio – or during the a cappella sessions during the long bus rides in elementary school, all of the kids belting out the lyrics to “On Top of the World” to the extent that our lungs would allow, as the bus wound its way through the towering pines and rolling hills of Summit Valley, Washington. The very air around us seemed to breathe in the exhilaration of life itself.

It was such a long time ago, really. So it seems odd that Karen Carpenter would be flitting about in my head this morning.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that this particular song was used in the latest Shrek movie…quite fitting, really, considering the mood they were trying to engender with the music and Shrek’s feeling of pure, unadulterated delight at being a feared ogre once again.



Brilliant says I.

As I think about this song, another Carpenter’s hit that comes to mind as well which captivates another feeling altogether…a feeling of gloom of sullenness as the first strains of the music begins (I tried to embed the video clip, but it has been disabled by request, you’ll need to click here to access it; the clip is from one of my favorite movies of all time).

“Rainy Days and Mondays” – “On Top of the World.”

Here they are, two songs in such in stark contrast to each other which seem to paint alternating pictures between two diametrically different feelings...almost like the proverbial Ying to Yang.

It’s a little bit funny, too, a friend and I were chatting about this yesterday evening…about those particular days we all seem to have when “sometimes [you] want to quit, [and] nothing ever seems to fit…” and those other days when “there’s wonder in most everything [you] see.”

It’s so strange that we feel both of these things; sometimes within’ moments of the other. One moment the world is our oyster, and the next it is the bane of our existence. Just why is this?

Attitude?

Altitude?

Focus?

A current choice that we make?

All good ideas I suppose.

I hope that each of us - myself included - can remember that tomorrow is another day, that we all have amazing things about us, too. Yet, even with all of this amazingness inside, we will all still have mountains to climb and valleys to traverse. One day we'll find ourselves standing on a Monday in the rain without an umbrella, and on another we'll be looking down from the highest peaks to the world below us.

After all…

We. Are. All. Awesome.



And while I might not have a letter in the postbox waiting for you to help brighten your day, I do have a little sompth-sompthin for you. It’s been around for a while, I’ve seen it numerous times – and you probably have, too; however, it’s most certainly worth seeing yet again.

Happy Tuesday, to you.

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