Down the Rabbit Hole

Musical Memory and the Writing Resume

"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
DAY 1504 prompt-- January 29, 2018
Prompt: “Your calling is more powerful than your resume,” says Tama J. Kieves in the January 12, 2018 issue of Signature. In what ways can you imagine your writing to be more powerful than your resume?

I have enjoyed the same career for about twenty years now in an industry that is as old school as they come. It is male-dominated, often unapologetically so. It can be demanding, draining and discouraging. Still, its in my blood. I have become at home with the quiet darkness of the early mornings when the fuselage of the aircraft stand like silent sentinels in the shadows. The smells of MEK and jet fuel have become as familiar as the whine of a turbine engine on run up or the way my office shakes when one of the big C-130's makes a landing. In twenty years I have become skilled at the nuances of the job but never 100% immune to the frustrations. I still write emails that never get replies, make suggestions that seemly are not heard, I still have to fight for every ounce of recognition and authority. I still battle with self-doubt and insecurity in a world where most of my peers are two decades older and male. My resume is weighted with highly specialized skills that may or may not be applicable outside the general aviation sector.

Like most writers, I dream of a world where I could forgo the day job and write for a living. I dream about actually finishing a piece of novel-length fiction that kicks off my career as a bonified author. I'm mired in enough reality to know I've hardly the time or discipline to do any such thing. I do believe my writing is as powerful as my resume because it isn't bound by rules. It flows from some nature place in my soul and when its particularly effective, it can inspire feelings in others. When I write something that someone else can relate to, that is a powerful way to connect to another person. It is validation for my own feelings and serves as a testimony to my experiences, even my fictional pieces because they all contain my truths in some way. If my characters love, hurt, bleed, heal...its because in some way I have also done those things. While my career is a defining element of my life, my writing is the landscape of my existence.



"Blogging Circle of Friends"
DAY 1901: January 29, 2018
Prompt: What is your favorite song? Why? Does this song motivate you? Does it bring back memories?


Music has been a constant companion in my life. I have always had a wide and varied repertoire that has accompanied all the major and minor moments in my life. It is extremely difficult to chose one favorite. I have several that are what I would call my milestone tunes, they have never faded in the obscurity of my playlists. If I had to give one song more weight than another in my heart, it would have to be Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes". The haunting lyrics and melodic musings have made it one of the most stirring songs, even before it became irrevocably linked to a former lover who would sing it to me so often. He told me it would be mine forever. I can't listen to it today without thinking of his hazel pools that dimmed too soon for this world. Even after my love for him faded, that song still allows me to remember the healthier days of our love and friendship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3kFPBtc9BE

When you experience a loss of love, even if you had prayed to stop caring, you are wounded in a way that you don't believe you will ever heal. Then you meet someone, and it opens you up again. Mozella's "Can't Stop", is the song that reminds me that we are rewarded for having faith in love - even the most damaged. The simply stated candor of the lyrics nearly perfectly sums up the way I felt about meeting my husband, and they honor the way he waited patiently for my heart to realize my place was with him.

"Speak to me, read my mind
And fill your mouth with flesh and wine
And I'll be yours, just give me time
Give me time"

"Cause you have everything I could ever want
You have everything I could ever want"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbFDA9pAnXA

Nat King Cole's "Straighten Up and Fly Right" is forever attached to my daughter. It was the song I'd play that I'd bounce around with her in my arms to comfort her. It was the song I could play to stop her fussing in the car. It was the song we would sing together as she got older. It will forever be the song of me as a new mother, tentative but joyful. It is the soundtrack of dancing barefoot with my new baby girl in my arms and feeling as if the whole universe, for at least four minutes and twenty seconds, was at peace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fVaP6dM1fs