I am my own experiment

Playing roulette with the quotes at the top of the page over last week has been fun. I never know what I am going to write about until I refresh the page. No cheating – I take what I get. :D

Today’s randomness happens to be from Madonna. I am no closet Madonna fan. I will openly admit to liking a lot of her music. As an artist, I am constantly amazed at the many ways that she can reinvent herself and carry on with her career. I don’t think her success is any kind of fluke. Madonna can recognize opportunity, works hard and is not afraid to take risks. Her words to us today are:

“I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.”

Some might interpret that as “be unique,” but we have already learned that “unique” does not describe us. I think the key point to take from her statement is that we must not let others make us into something we are not. We must use our resources to be our OWN experiment. Don’t try something just because everyone else is trying it. Do your own thing. Madonna certainly has. Whether you agree with her choices or not (and let’s not get into that because I know that is a huge can of worms), Madonna has bucked trends right and left. She doesn’t look at the norm and try to fit into what everyone else is doing. She tries new things and we all learn from her experiences. Sometimes we learn that maybe we shouldn’t do what she is doing and sometimes we learn some really cool stuff.

One thing I’ve learned as I’ve grown older is that sometimes I think I don’t like something, but I find out later in life that I actually enjoy it. A good example (and I am so gonna get busted by my band for confessing this) is singing. I don’t like singing in public and for nearly my entire life I didn’t even sing privately. I was forced to sing in college classes, since it was a requirement to pass my ear training classes as a music major, but I HATED it. I’m pretty sure it is because I was traumatized by my grade school music teacher who once told me that I couldn’t sing. Regardless of her opinion, my grades in college from those ear training exams proved otherwise. I can carry a tune and recognize pitch. I majored in music, afterall, so what did she know? ;)

Now that I have kids and music is a part of our everyday lives, I find myself in the car with them a lot singing along to whatever CD we happened to agree on – Bon Jovi, Superchick, Amy Grant, Hannah Montana or even Madonna. Working from home means I can have music on all day long and I can sometimes be found singing along as I work. Ok – honestly – I probably sing all day. No one is here, so I can get away with it. ;)

Recently, at a praise team practice at church, the new leaders were trying to learn a song that they didn’t know. The only person there who knew the song was me. At first I was like “I’m the drummer. I don’t sing.” So they tried the song on their own – ouch. I couldn’t take it any longer so I got off my drum set and went over to the keyboard and sang it for them. Not once. Not twice…..but FOUR times. I think I shocked myself. And there were three witnesses to this event, too. :D (none of whom were in my band)

So does this mean I am ready to tour as a solo act? Heck, no. I’m not even brave enough to sing in front of my band (and here is where they harass me to no end, waving music in front of my face and pretending they don’t know how it goes – very funny). My point is that I am evolving as a person and MAYBE some day I will do more singing in front of actual people, but that is a big, fat maybe. At least I am recognizing that singing is a possibility and that I can “experiment” with it and see if it fits me as a person. (Note to my band – I’m not making any promises!)

Now my challenge for the day is to decide whether I will really post this or not, because certain people in my band will be reading this and I will NEVER hear the end of it. EVER. Am I ready to deal with that yet? And how did I get off on this tangent anyway?