Adult “Time outs”
For most of you mid-30-to-early-40-something-year-olds, you are right in the middle of this journey called “life”. Husband, wife, kids, mortgage, car payment(s), tuitions, baby momma drama (or daddy drama) etc. need I go on? There are days, and we all have them, when you stress about all the above. Some of us (and yes, I fall into that group as well) struggle through, like trying to walk thru 10 inches of unshoveled snow growing tired and weary looking for some sort of solace at the end of the day while others give up, collapse or turn to outside substances to help us dull the pain. I’m sure the title of this piece gave you a bit of a chuckle but in all seriousness, whenever you retreat to the memories of days gone by (college years; high school days; clubbin til dawn; block-parties; park jams BEFORE they started shooting), don’t they bring a smile to your face? Why do we not draw on those moments when we were at our happiest when we feel downtrodden and overwhelmed?
As we grow older and the layers and levels of responsibility weigh down on us like the proverbial “gorilla” on our backs, I challenge you to take an “adult time out”. Sounds crazy right but think about it for a moment. How many times have you been in your car or listening to the radio at work when a jam comes on the radio and you say either to yourself or out loud, “Yo, that was my jam!”? For most of us, we listen briefly, nod our heads and crack a fleeting smile then get back to whatever it was that we were doing and turn the radio down. What we are actually doing is passing up a golden opportunity to replenish our souls & recharge our batteries. While we all need a vacation every once in a while to get away from it all and truly revive, why do we pass up the little rechargeable moments? My suggestion to you all is to carve out some time if not daily, at least a few times a week to reminisce and do some “self therapy”.
Now I’m about to take some of you on a “ride”. Can you still feel the adrenaline rush when you hear Eric B & Rakim’s “You Know You Got Soul”? How about the smile that comes across your face when LL screams “Mama Said Knock You Out”? Who can stop themselves from doing the “Happy Feet” in the car when you hear Chuck Brown blurt out “Run Joe” or Trouble Funk “Drop the Bomb”? It has long been documented that music has a certain healing power and it’s time that more of us take advantage of that power. I may have an unfair advantage, being a freelance deejay, in the fact that I can reach into my archives and pull out practically a jam from any genre of music made in the last century or so but with internet access, everyone has access to a wealth of musical “medicine”. Case in point- I started writing this piece at around 5 in the morning (I couldn’t get back to sleep after being awakened by my 9 year old son but that’s another column) while listening to my cable network’s “old-school hip hop” channel. I’ll admit, I didn’t wake up in the best of moods but as the sounds of UTFO, Salt N Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, and Busy Bee, filled my living room, my mood was quietly transformed. All I need now is for the Mrs’ to come downstairs so we can playfully try to replicate the Kid N Play “kick dance”. As you can probably gather by now, I’m a ‘hip hop baby”- coming of age during the dawn of rap. Beats, rhymes, Adidas with the phat laces, belt buckles, etc. are all part of my foundation. Notice I said foundation and not history or past. I firmly believe that everything that you experience, the good and the bad, should be built upon and not forgotten. Society tends to pressure you to bury those things that brought you “joy” during the years of your youth. Problem is, when you let go of all the things of your youth, you get “old” real fast.
Life is going to throw you curveballs. It ALWAYS does. Some of them we will hit out of the park. Some of them we will miss by a mile (We might even get hit by a few of them).
The important thing is to keep coming back up to bat. I encourage you to take that timeout to go back in the day. Who needs Prozac when you have Hip Hop?!
As always,
To my Wife “Ses”…..Love ya always.
To “Punkin” and “Doobie”…hugs and kisses!
dk
For most of you mid-30-to-early-40-something-year-olds, you are right in the middle of this journey called “life”. Husband, wife, kids, mortgage, car payment(s), tuitions, baby momma drama (or daddy drama) etc. need I go on? There are days, and we all have them, when you stress about all the above. Some of us (and yes, I fall into that group as well) struggle through, like trying to walk thru 10 inches of unshoveled snow growing tired and weary looking for some sort of solace at the end of the day while others give up, collapse or turn to outside substances to help us dull the pain. I’m sure the title of this piece gave you a bit of a chuckle but in all seriousness, whenever you retreat to the memories of days gone by (college years; high school days; clubbin til dawn; block-parties; park jams BEFORE they started shooting), don’t they bring a smile to your face? Why do we not draw on those moments when we were at our happiest when we feel downtrodden and overwhelmed?
As we grow older and the layers and levels of responsibility weigh down on us like the proverbial “gorilla” on our backs, I challenge you to take an “adult time out”. Sounds crazy right but think about it for a moment. How many times have you been in your car or listening to the radio at work when a jam comes on the radio and you say either to yourself or out loud, “Yo, that was my jam!”? For most of us, we listen briefly, nod our heads and crack a fleeting smile then get back to whatever it was that we were doing and turn the radio down. What we are actually doing is passing up a golden opportunity to replenish our souls & recharge our batteries. While we all need a vacation every once in a while to get away from it all and truly revive, why do we pass up the little rechargeable moments? My suggestion to you all is to carve out some time if not daily, at least a few times a week to reminisce and do some “self therapy”.
Now I’m about to take some of you on a “ride”. Can you still feel the adrenaline rush when you hear Eric B & Rakim’s “You Know You Got Soul”? How about the smile that comes across your face when LL screams “Mama Said Knock You Out”? Who can stop themselves from doing the “Happy Feet” in the car when you hear Chuck Brown blurt out “Run Joe” or Trouble Funk “Drop the Bomb”? It has long been documented that music has a certain healing power and it’s time that more of us take advantage of that power. I may have an unfair advantage, being a freelance deejay, in the fact that I can reach into my archives and pull out practically a jam from any genre of music made in the last century or so but with internet access, everyone has access to a wealth of musical “medicine”. Case in point- I started writing this piece at around 5 in the morning (I couldn’t get back to sleep after being awakened by my 9 year old son but that’s another column) while listening to my cable network’s “old-school hip hop” channel. I’ll admit, I didn’t wake up in the best of moods but as the sounds of UTFO, Salt N Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, and Busy Bee, filled my living room, my mood was quietly transformed. All I need now is for the Mrs’ to come downstairs so we can playfully try to replicate the Kid N Play “kick dance”. As you can probably gather by now, I’m a ‘hip hop baby”- coming of age during the dawn of rap. Beats, rhymes, Adidas with the phat laces, belt buckles, etc. are all part of my foundation. Notice I said foundation and not history or past. I firmly believe that everything that you experience, the good and the bad, should be built upon and not forgotten. Society tends to pressure you to bury those things that brought you “joy” during the years of your youth. Problem is, when you let go of all the things of your youth, you get “old” real fast.
Life is going to throw you curveballs. It ALWAYS does. Some of them we will hit out of the park. Some of them we will miss by a mile (We might even get hit by a few of them).
The important thing is to keep coming back up to bat. I encourage you to take that timeout to go back in the day. Who needs Prozac when you have Hip Hop?!
As always,
To my Wife “Ses”…..Love ya always.
To “Punkin” and “Doobie”…hugs and kisses!
dk
posted by Darryl Krush at 5:06 AM
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