Summit Wellness: Gratitude - "When Only The Song Will Do"
Wellness can be achieved by virtue of completing a journey and maintain a lifestyle. But it can also be magnified by our ability to appreciate and be thankful for the things that we already have! Summit Wellness continues to hum the melody of connection between feeling good and feeling grateful!Gratitude is a monthly feature contributed by Matt Anthony, Digital Media Producer and on-air host for the Summit FM. Matt reflects on instances where we might uncover more ways to appreciate what’s in front of us, and how those instances might contribute to our overall health and well-being.
By Matt Anthony - Summit FM Contributor
When will they construct a statue for Cameron Crowe?
In my formative music-appreciation years, I dove-tailed my prodigious vinyl-buying sprees (or at least being as financially irresponsible as one can be while working as a stock-boy at a supermarket) with a subscription to Rolling Stone. For nearly 3 decades, I was a dedicated member of the club. In my early years, I would race to my attic-lair with the latest edition, slam the door shut, pop Be-Bop Deluxe on the turntable, and devour the stories and the scoop behind the artists with whom I was having a love affair, as well as those who, because of lack of funds, probably wouldn’t make it into my cantaloupe crate.
Greil Marcus. Ben Fong-Torres. Charles M. Young. These were magical names, as lustrous and wide-reaching, at least for me, as Jimmy Page, or Ginger Baker, or Chris Squire. How in the heck could they string a series of dependent clauses together in such a way as to capture the raw essence of the latest Ian Hunter album with such elegance and honesty and grit?
I would also include the name of ‘Cameron Crowe’ in that litany. His reviews and profiles were just as enthralling as any offered inside Jann Wenner’s creation. Those days in the late 70’s and early 80’s poring over his handiwork in my attic hideway or hidden inside my algebra notebook while in study hall at St. Thomas Aquinas were as important to me as any album. (and for that I’m eternally grateful.)
Cameron Crowe seemed to understand me. Me, the chubby, anxiety-filled kid who couldn’t hit the curveball but who could play air-guitar, note-for-note, to the first Boston, Dire Straits, or Sex Pistols album. And while I might not have always agreed with him or his opinions, I respected his penchant for revealing his version of the truth, in all its brutality.
So, you can probably surmise that I’m also a fan of his work as a screenwriter and a director, hence the petition for posterity in bronze.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Say Anything. Singles. His ability to inject just the right amount of rock-sensibility into a storyline is something that has always resonated with me. It’s why Almost Famous will always (and, believe me, I’ve had numerous loud, late-night discussions about this choice!), at least for me, rank in my top-20 movies of all time, posing beautifully right next to The Godfather Part II, Goodfellas, Ordinary People, and The Sting.
Not too terribly far down in that list also sits Jerry Maguire. And while I wouldn’t place it next to Shawshank Redemption or The Usual Suspects or Das Boot or Star Wars, necessarily, I would, though, include a miraculous scene from this 1996 film. In it, Jerry has just landed Frank ‘Cush’ Cushman as a client, the soon-to-be number 1 quarterback pick in college football. Since striking out on his own, it’s, by far, the biggest conquest in his company’s young life.
After leaving the Cushman property in his rental car, he scans the radio dial, looking for the appropriate compliment to go with the celebration. Because, really, aren’t we all just looking for the song that just…fits?
At that moment, The Stones weren’t cutting it. Juice Newton? Nope. Gram Parsons wasn’t quite right, either. And then, in a breathtaking moment of satori (or serendipity, take your pick), all the forces of perfection merged into a brilliant ball of total bliss.
Free Fallin’. Tom Petty.
Is there anything better than choosing, finding, or stumbling upon, maybe by accident, the consummate song for the moment? It’s as if all the forces of the universe nodded their head in perfect symmetry. And since there are no words to describe that elation, the only thing left to do is to scream the words of that song as loudly as you can.
I’ve felt that elation. And…I’ve felt that sense of loss. Because sometimes that perfect song is also the perfect complement to something that may have gone awry. Something bad. Something precarious. Something devastating.
And that’s what makes us feel like Jerry Maguire. I’m grateful for having ‘the song’ there, with me, for the most celebratory of times. And for those times that are mired in despair, when nobody can understand the pain and angst that I’m experiencing…except the artist who created that song, or the artist who created that film.
So, thank you, Cameron Crowe. Thank you for reminding us to be grateful for the song. Because sometimes nothing else can sum it up better.