A Visit With John Denver

It happened right there in Kroger's while I was shopping for a frozen box of spinach. Herman was picking up a prescription in another part of the store. I seldom hear the background music in stores when I am shopping, and if I do it's usually a catchy, upbeat, dance piece; but, somehow today was different. There I stood looking at the freezer items singing out loud to John Denver's "Sweet Surrender" totally lost in time and space to the lyrics. I did not miss  

single word!

And I don't know wht the future is holdin' in store

I don't know where I'm goin', I'm not sure where I've been.

There's a spirit that guides me, a light that shine for me

My life is worth the livin' I don't need to see the end.

Sweet, Sweet Surrender

Live, live without care

Like a fish in the water

Like a bird in the air.

I never commented to Herman about my behavior or my thoughts as we drove home and resumed our separate routines. About an hour later Herman comes down the stairs with our old John Denver album and puts it on the turntable. Neither of us comment while we continue with lunch preparation and emails.  

I was lost in images, lyrics and so many memories I could not wrap my self around it all. Our oldest son, Cree, was born during the John Denver years.  The first song he ever sang was, "Thanks God I'm a County Boy"; our first major vacation outside Tennessee was to ........yes, Denver. "On the Road" followed us as we moved to the Chesapeake Bay area, and "Grandma's Feather Bed" brought memories of Herman's Granny, and "Annie's Song" was heard as we traveled through a June snowstorm in the Rocky Mountains. It was really a love song written to his first wife Annie, but because of where we were driving when I first heard it, for me it was always a song about nature.

While teaching learning theory in my general psychology classes I usually illustrated classical conditioning with song lyrics and learned emotional reactions. On those days when I discussed how memories and songs are intimately tied to the human experience, I asked my students to provide their own examples of learned emotional experiences.  It always seemed to be one of their and my favorite class days.

Yesterday was a revisiting of my early adulthood years. It was too powerful to share with Herman or with my readers. Today has brought some distance and this article.  Today I am focused on the lyrics of "Sweet Surrender" and what it says about where I am now.  I find most news, no matter whether it's television, magazine, email, text messaged, etc., quite depressing, and I often get too consumed by what has forced it's way into my life.  Somehow rediscovering John Denver and having a conversation with him through his lyrics was the meditation I needed for where I am now. I hope you have some artisans in your life with whom you can engage in a conversation.