Death, Dashes, and Decisions

I was introduced to the music of Garth Brooks sometime in my teen years. My high school boyfriend, for all of his faults, was a great lover of Garth and we would often listen to his "The Hits" album when I was riding shotgun in his car. When I was talking about Garth's music during that time with the cousin of a family friend, it was he who told me to seek out the secret extra verses of the iconic "Friends in Low Places" and "The Thunder Rolls" featured only on the live albums. Long after the inevitable heartache trail left by my high school beau, Garth's music continued to keep a hold on me and in some twisty full circle series of circumstances it was my husband who made my concert bucket list complete with floor tickets in the 10th row in 2015 where I got to see not only Garth Brooks but his wife Trisha Yearwood perform for a glorious 2.5 hours. 

Not the best pic from that night,
but it was the best night.

Garth Brooks is a music legend. This is not an opinion. This is fact.

But what exactly is it about Garth's music that I find so engaging, relatable, enjoyable? The songs certainly have a catchiness, a "rock-out"-ability, and the kind of music I can get lost in while driving in my car or cleaning my kitchen. But it's not that.

For me, what I love about Garth is that his songs are personal. 

They tell stories. Take "The Beaches of Cheyenne" as an example, a song about a couple who has a fight, and the wife has to live with the regret of that fight when her husband dies. It is my favorite Garth song. Or "Papa Loves Mama", a song that on paper is a standard issue country song about an affair with a hint of violence - but it's that musicality and upbeat way that he belts out "Papa love Mama, Mama loved men..." that takes it to another level. 

Or they have wisdom. One of his best songs is one of his more recent, the song "People Loving People", a reminder that when it comes down to it the way that we are ultimately going to have to solve the problems of the world is just to love one another. It's the same refrain that can be heard in the words of Carlos Whitaker in his book "How to Human" - "I don't stand on issues; I walk with people." 

"People loving people, that's the remedy to everything that's evil..." 

Sing it, Garth. 

I am currently reading the book Winter's Fury by A.E. Rayne. I chose it as one of my Amazon Prime First Reads at some point, a "perk" that Amazon offers its Prime members which is really just a way to get you to enjoy book authors or series and buy more books. I'm about halfway through, but it's one of these Norse-type fantasy books with arranged marriages and family and political turmoil and power struggles and forced proximity romance. I'm about 56% of the way through the book at the writing of this post and so far the book has been largely character and plot development, buildup of conflict, and we are now to the point where the instigators have shown up and things will start to play out and either resolve or leave you with a cliffhanger to get you to procure the next book. 

The other night while reading, I came across this line and it really hit me in the reality check spot. "If you only focus on the pain at the end, you'll have an empty life, filled with fear and loneliness. Death will claim us all, eventually, you can't stop that. But you can choose how to live before it does." 

Death will claim us all. You can choose how to live before it does. 

Not long after 9/11, Garth Brooks released his 8th album - Scarecrow. I don't remember if I got it as a Christmas gift or bought it for myself, but I had it not long after it was released. This might be my favorite overall album of Garth's, maybe because of its timing right smack in the middle of my college years, but so many of these songs just spoke to me. "B-E-E-R- R-U-N" could have been a college student anthem, and "The Storm" hit me in the feels at a time when we were all reeling as a nation. I felt the loneliness of a late-night radio DJ in "Mr. Midnight" and to this day I still occasionally sing my daughter to sleep with "When You Come Back to Me Again" so she will always know that people are there for her. 

But what does Garth Brooks' "Scarecrow" album have to do with Winter's Fury? 

Three-quarters of the way through "Scarecrow" is another one of my favorite Garth songs, "Pushing Up Daisies". This song, like "Standing Outside the Fire" and so many of Garth's songs before it, is a call to us to live our lives to the fullest. I remember driving between campus and home singing the chorus loudly in my 1994 Pontiac Grand Prix...

To give you a picture. 

"There's two dates in time that they'll carve on that stone, and everyone knows what they mean. But what's more important is the time that is known on that little dash there in between... oh that little dash there in between." 

Death will claim us all. You can choose how to live before it does. 

There's two dates in time that they'll carve on our stones, but what's more important than those dates is the time on the dash in between. 

When you woke up this morning, you woke up. 

Sit on that for a minute. When you wokup this morning, you woke up. What a gift you've been given to just have woken up this morning! Yes, I'm being serious right now. There are 1,440 minutes in a day. Let's say you sleep for 6-8 of them, that means you have about 900-1,100 minutes where you are awake and can make choices that will define that day. 

What will you choose? Will you choose to focus on the pain, whether that's the anticipated unknown pain we may eventually face when Death arrives or the pain of the daily grind? 

Or will you choose to focus on the things that aren't painful? Maybe that's the joy of the laugh of a child or the peaceful silence of a snowfall. The steam coming off of your cup of coffee. The chatter of the moms watching their kids at the playground. The laughter and cheers at a sports bar. The reunion of loved ones at the airport. A movie night with family and friends. 

Serving those who have less than we do. Giving a shoulder to someone who is grieving or our hands to someone who is moving. 

Death will claim us all. What's more important is the time that is known in that little dash there in between. 

You can choose how to live that dash. 

Live it, Reader.