"And when I die..."

Well, this morning when I woke up singing, it wasn't any different than most mornings when I start singing first thing, except today's song seemed a little ominous.

It's funny how we often create our own lyrics, either because we forgot the original words or maybe we never even learned them in the first place. I remember a thousand years ago, when my friend, PJ Shank's, mother, whom we affectionately called "Link" used to sing "One Ton Tomatoes" instead of "Guantanamera" for the words to the song by the same name "Guantanamera".


I laugh often when I watch people on the Ellen show make up there own lyrics as the camera pans across the audience during pre-show warmups.


But today, it was a little somber. A little dark. And at first it sounded a little hopeless as the words came out of my mouth.


I was singing a classic by "Blood, Sweat and Tears", their great hit "And when I Die". It has a fun melody, kinda upbeat, but boy...when I Googled the complete lyrics, since I couldn't remember the entire song and just kept repeating the one line of the refrain "I'm not scared of dying". It dawned on me. I am scared of dying.


But you know what, just like the next verse says "if it's peace you find in dying then let dying time be near."...it's all a matter of interpretation.

Another line in the song says "I can swear there ain't no heaven, but I pray there ain't no hell"....I guess I have to disagree with that as well. If there isn't any heaven, well, then, score one for the Big Guy for leading us down a hopeless path. There has to be something on the other side. I'm not ready to find out yet, and I am scared to find out, but I have faith..

I'm guessing a lot of this is that at my age, many of my friends are becoming ill and having to fight battles they never expected they would encounter. But I, like you, am here to help them. 

So, as the song says...

And when I die and when I'm dead, dead and gone,
there'll be one child born and a world to carry on, to carry on.


Now is not the time to give up hope, all of us have a lot of livin' to do.

Anyway, welcome to my world...It's crazy, but it's exciting.