One of my favorite songs and music videos is a song by R.E.M. called "Imitation of Life." If you have never seen or heard the song, I highly suggest that you take about 4 1/2 minutes to watch it on YouTube. The song has lots of meanings depending on who you ask, but one of the things that makes the song great is the is how the music video and song play off each other. The video is of a pool party scene and through out the video you get to zoom in on different aspects of what is going on at the party. The scene is actually less then a 30 second snapshot of life, but you get to see the scene from multiple points of view, and ultimately get to see that a lot of the people are playing a part and not being real with themselves or the people around them. The reason that I have been thinking about this song and video is because my computer crashed and I lost all my music and apps that were saved on my itunes account. When I was finally able to recoveedr all my stuff, I heard this song playing as my phone was syncing. I was thinking "yeah, I wish I could have imitated this part of life," but then I realized that most of us "imitate" life on a daily basis. From getting the kids ready for school, getting ourselves ready for work, doing work around the house, our routine at work, and sometimes even the interactions we have with our spouses are just going through the motions. (Don't lie to me and tell me that none of you have had conversations with your spouse where you knew what they were going to say/respond to whatever you said. In fact, I just got in trouble for that. I thought I knew what Janel was going to say, but I was wrong. She shouldn't break the pattern after 7 years of marriage - it throws me off!) Anyway, I was at the splash park today with a friend of mine and as our children were frolicking through the sprinklers it hit me - this is what life is really about, things that can't be imitated. I don't know about you but I hate to get caught in the rain, but the kids were soaked to the bone and loving; whereas, a lite spring shower can ruin my entire day. I had a blast watching my 4 year old daughter run around splashing and playing while catching up with my buddy (even if we did look like a homosexual couple with our three kids - thanks for hanging out with us today Dustin). If you live in the Covington/Mandeville/Abita Springs area there are a couple of great splash parks to go to (for free), if not a sprinkler and a kiddie pool in the yard work just a well - go out and be a kid for a while.
All of us have our routines and habits, but if we are not careful we can easily fall into the trap of just faking our way through life. TPS reports and dealing with the Bill Lumbergh (umm, yeah, uhh) at the office should never take the place of the raw and unscripted moments that make you realize that life is pretty cool deal.
Well on a real note, laundry is calling my name (I am going to have to go through the motions of folding clothes). I do want to say how proud I am of my wife for completing her first 5k race today. She did an awesome job and I am sure she will update everyone on her blog (covingtonmomof2.blogspot.com) as soon as she recovers.
You can follow me on Facebook (which is probably how you got here in the first place), but also now on twitter, and YouTube. You can follow the links below to find both of those sites.
So, umm, until next time, I am going to need you to, uhhhh, live life for real. Yeah, that would be great.
- Jonathan
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