“I feel alive.  I feel the love.  I feel the love that’s really real”

My wife despises this song.  It’s a turn-the-station-quick-or-I-will kind of loathing.  It’s not really a “guy” song either.  Back in the 80’s I probably would have turned it if anyone had been in my car with me, but not now that I’m older and really don’t care what people think of my music choices and preferences.  Personally, I love this song with it’s bubbly, catchy hook.  I’m not ashamed!  I love Katrina and her Waves!

The song is on my Spotify personal “80’s playlist” and it’s a frequent visitor to my favorite Sirius/XM station – the 80’s on 8 with the original MTV VJ’s sans the late JJ Jackson and more recently Martha Quinn left (oh, why did you leave us @MarthaQuinn)

Band member and lead guitarist for the British/American group, Kimberly Rew, wrote the song that would eventually crack the top 10 in the U.S. in 1985 as the group’s only top 10 hit here giving them the popular but often unfair label of “one-hit wonder.”  I think we would all agree that out of the thousands and thousands of band and singers that come and go in a lifetime, any of us would love to have that one hit that reaches the airwaves and continues to dance off the lips of people everywhere to this day.

Hey!  Alright now.

But, it did get me thinking.  Is it really a negative to be a “one-hit wonder?”  It sounds like it sometimes.  But aren’t we all just one-hit wonders when it comes down to it?  We get one human life and one shot at doing something with it.  We’re tasked with making the most of our God-given talents.  We strive to make this a better world for the next generation.  We long to be a part of something greater than ourselves.  Whether it’s with our family, or a thriving business, or maybe just as part of a band grinding every day at achieving some definition of success, there is something inherit in us that drives us.

What are you doing with your one shot?  What am I doing with mine?  Well right now I’m struggling to write a post that will make you think, make you reflect a little, and maybe even bring you over to my side on Katrina and the Waves if you’re not there yet.

80’s digression:  The irony in the video (at the end of this post) is that it appears the day they did the shoot for the video they ended up with mostly cold, gray skies and some fog.  The only glimpse of any sunshine looks like maybe around the 2:20 mark where I see some shadows as Katrina and the band are walking.  Otherwise, it’s a pretty dreary video.

Katrina Leskanich is the Katrina, and as I watched her in the video I had some wardrobe thoughts:  1) I wondered what’s up with the matching trench coats of her band mates, and 2) just how many girls/women in the 80’s had a black vest like Katrina?  Fifty percent?  75%?  90%?  I’m guessing the black vest was a staple piece in most closets.  My wife had one, and she’s been trendy since she was a young adult.  It’s even in one of my all-time favorite 80’s movies being worn in the final scene by the late Amanda Peterson in “Can’t Buy Me Love.”)

(RIP to the late Amanda Peterson shown in her black vest at the end of the movie)

“And I just can’t wait till that day when You knock on my door.”

The concept of that line takes on a slightly different meaning from the song if you choose to capitalize the “Y” in You.  C.S. Lewis brilliantly writes “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.”  Ahh… another option for that one shot you get!

Whether you’re religious or not, the virtue of hope and what it means is something we can all relate to regardless of gender or race, or where you live, or what socio-economic class you belong to.  And I think that’s another reason this song resonates with me.  It’s a song full of hope.  There are too many people out there that have given up and have no hope.  If you have no hope, there’s something wrong.  What are you living for?  Are you meandering through life like a pinball bouncing from one bumper to another?  Are you living for that next temporary high that will never truly satisfy you?  I’m challenging myself and I challenge you to dig deep.  Find what drives you.  Find that meaning and that hope and get after it.  Life is a gift, so don’t take it for granted man!  Some say I have some talent when it comes to writing, so here I am proving them wrong (LOL).  Actually whether I do or whether I don’t is strictly opinion in my mind, but regardless I am trying to get better everyday.

Much like our daily lives, and the Bible verse in Ecclesiastes 1:5 – “The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.”  And it repeats itself over and over and at an alarming rate as you age.

If you need a pick-me-up today, I dare you to be in a bad mood after listening to the song.    My wife may never like or appreciate Katrina and the Waves.  You may cringe every time the song comes on.  But for me, and for some of you Wavers out there (I don’t know if that’s what their fans call themselves or not – it just sounded right), one day when I get to my penthouse in the sky, I literally hope to be doing and to be singing…

“I’m walking on sunshine, wooah.  I’m walking on sunshine, wooah.  I’m walking on sunshine, woooah, and don’t it feel good!”

As always, thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

the 80’s