Can it be it digression if you haven't started talking about what you were going to talk about? I guess it is the title of the post. So yeah, I have digressed. Double-digression? This could go on for a while.
He was featured on CBS Sunday Morning today (so it wasn't really a digression). I had a couple of his albums in my early to mid teens. I know it was around that time because I know I listened to them as I drove around in my 1981 Camero Berlinetta And you know what, I liked them. I liked his music. I liked it in the truest sense. Hearing him sing engaged me in his words and created a common emotive. It was a soundtrack perfectly suited for my pursuit of happiness.
Somewhere along the line I realized he wasn't cool. I guess this is probably because he wasn't. At all. And for that reason alone, I stopped listening to his music. I stopped enjoying singing along at the top of my pubescent lungs to his super sappy love songs. I let others influence what made me happy.
It isn't always a bad thing to let the opinion of others shape us. If it weren't for the influence of my wife and in-laws, I wouldn't know how amazing a good spicy tuna handroll can be. And trust, it is crazy good. But allowing others to arbitrarily police your likes and dislikes based on their opinions usually results in less happiness, not more.
As I see my daughter struggling through the crockpot that is middle school, I hope she will always enjoy what she enjoys because it makes her happy. Wear that My Little Pony hoodie. Wear it proud, while I jam to the long-haired prince of late-century love songs.
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