Pain is the Touchstone of Growth--and Music

I was out for my evening walk tonight and listening to music on my iShuffle. It's kind of the Third Step way to listen--I take what the shuffle delivers. I noticed that song after song --many old timey favorites --are songs that we associate with good times.

But maybe it was walking at dusk that shifted my perception but I began to notice that some of the most beautiful love songs were written in World War II and they were written for and by people who would never see their beloved again. Today we cherish these as sweetheart songs forgetting they were actually  songs of grief.

Similarly music from The Great Depression. I have the sound track to "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" (Coen Brothers masterpiece movie) on the iShuffle and I kept hitting repeat to sing along to "Keep on the Sunny Side."

Often today we speed up that song and sing it like a happy dance when it was in fact a song of lost hope and last resort for people who had lost everything and who were starving.

Maybe we do know the pathos under those loves songs and the heartfelt melancholy embedded in Depression Era music. A part of us--the part we reclaim in recovery--can feel joy even in grief and hope even in fear.

Here's a sample: Click the link below to hear The Whites sing, "Keep on the Sunnyside" . This is close to the beautiful version they performed for "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRFtWhM4S1k

The Soundtrack of Your Recovery

Many people in long recovery use music as a tool. It is part of our stress management, our spiritual practice and as inspiration to the ways we want to live in the world. But it’s not a tool that we talk about much in meetings.

This week I have been blasting the soundtrack to the film, “Oh Brother Where Art Thou”—the depression era award-winning movie by the Coen Brothers starring George Clooney and John Goodman. I’ve been signing along and belting the songs even though I truly have no singing voice. The poignancy of the roots music cracks me open, helps me to cry and some of the songs become recovery anthems.

Today I kept hitting the repeat button to hear “Keep on the Sunny Side” by The Whites, and “In the Highways” performed by the young Peasall Sisters.

Perhaps my all time favorite “recovery inspiration” music is the sound track to the Broadway show, “Les Miserables.” My personal anthem is the barricades song and in the privacy of my car I make up new lyrics for “Will you join us” and “We will not be slaves again.”

You can find recovery music everywhere. It is whatever resonates with that better part of you and the part that aspires to helping you live the principles of the program.

My friend “T” keeps one of her car radio buttons set to a Christian radio station. Her personal faith and theology is not that conservative but she likes the uplift she gets from the Christian songs and she says that she can make those lyrics into prayers on her way to work.

So please share: What is your “non-conference-approved” recovery music? Is it Broadway? Tupac? Top 40? Or Country?

Here is some inspiration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpDbvlAI_A0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy1eOLEiyFY

The Step Shuffle

Perhaps you've heard the "Joe and Charlie" tapes that have circulated through AA communities for years. These are the old-timers who give talks on The Big Book combining history and humor with refreshing, sometimes startling insight. It's a view of recovery that never feels old to me.

In our area we have a "Joe and Charlie" meeting where we listen to the tapes for 30 minutes and then discuss. It keeps the steps alive in my week.

This week I had a bit of unexpected fun though--I wanted my own copy of the "Joe and Charlie" talks so I downloaded from iTunes. (the link is below) and I added them to my iTunes account and from there they went to my little Shuffle device. Not being a tech genius I didn't realize how the Shuffle would configure this new info, and in fact, it shuffled them.

It's a blast! When I go to walk or workout I new get music and a Big Book talk in alternating sections. It's the craziest but most wonderful thing. I go from Tina Turner to Step Two, then Bruce Springsteen to the meaning of surrender, then to the "Bend and Snap" song from Legally Blonde, and then right into a talk on relationships in recovery. It really adds to the meaning of the slogan,  "Move a muscle, change a thought."

You can get Joe and Charlie for your iPod, Shuffle, MP3 Player etc...at iTunes or by Googling "Joe and Charlie AA Talks" and selecting one of the free resources.



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