Can you listen to this song while you read this? Thanks.

Wednesday I—wait for it—went to the GYM (which reminds me that I need to update you on how Novemberesolutions are coming!)! I accompanied Gram to the JCC where I got moving on the track while she was in her exercise class. I’m one of those people who is kind of useless working out if I don’t have a soundtrack. I love how epic and movie-musical-esque it is listening to an ipod while doing anything out in public. When I lived in NYC and stood out in the frigid February cold waiting to get seen at auditions I had my motivation mix (featuring “Hold On” from the Secret Garden). When I just needed to get some endorphins rolling in I’d listen to “Not For the Life of Me” while gliding (read: attempting to dodge tourists who had eyes to the sky) through Times Square.
Now once again soundtrack in ear I’m listening to the Glee cast recording of “Imagine.” While decidedly not PUMP IT! music all I really need to feel motivated is music I really like. I’ll walk/jog in double time if need be. You may keep ‘Boom Boo Pow’. Thanks. So I’m hustling along the track above the gym at the Jewish Community Center in peace and quiet (all alone in the enormous gymnasium [obviously I had the audacity to sing along to my pod with no one there!]) admiring Lea Michelle’s placement and unusually high palette (I swear her skull is specifically formed for a perfect mix/belt) when the gym is invaded--by 4-year-olds! They come barreling in—running! And by choice! Their zest for life and innocence was so poignant as I was listening to lyrics like “imagine all the people living for today.” So I am listening to this entire song about idyllic peace and I’m watching these children just playing with simple things like a ball or a hoop or blocks. And I’m pondering how we all start like that—really just playing, discovering the world, completely sucking at eye/hand coordination and then somehow some people grow into monsters and inflict genocide…suicide bombings…child pornography.
As someone who really doesn’t understand the concept of senseless violence I wonder why we can’t keep the sweetness we had as children. And that’s when I see Kid 1 choose not to share his ball and Kid 2 take it anyway. Then in tears Kid 1 goes to tell the teacher the upsetting sequence of events. And I’m reminded that we aren’t innately sweet unselfish creatures. We are born looking out for #1 and we have to choose to do unselfish things. As inspiring as it is to simply see children joyfully careening across a gymnasium I’m reminded that we all have to choose to live joyfully as we grow up—and choose to live compassionately. It’s not innately in us to put others’ needs before our own but how much better would the world be if we all did? I mean, imagine.