50 Shades of Ear Worms

Everyone else seems to have fifty shades of something incongruous. Why not an ageing fart like me?

I was on the road today. That is, my routes were spread all over red dude's half acre and the only way to complete the route was by vehicle. Why is the Devil red? Is he really, really, REALLY tanned? I've got to check that out one of these days. I'm sure The Onion has a truthful article or two.

I get ear worms a lot. You know, the songs that scurry like over-sugared mice through your head and you just can't seem to get them to settle down. It's like your kids on high-octane Kool-Aid. Over and over and round and round. I usually end up whistling the tunes as well. Why limit the torment to just myself when I can share my uninhibited dopamine overload with unsuspecting unfortunates. Poor buggers.

For whatever reason today, I decided not only to share by whistling, I also took note of where I was and the song I was whistling at the time. For instance, Working on the Chain Gang while being escorted through the local police station. Seriously... how does this happen? I'm presuming my whistling was bad enough that the song was unrecognizable as the officer didn't slap me in handcuffs or discharge her firearm in my general direction.

It gets worse... or better... depending entirely on perspective.

As I approached the preschool, I started whistling Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street... over and over and over. Holy crap! How do I get this one out of my head!? At a hotel, it wasn't an ear worm I took notice of. While I waited for the manager to appear from the bowels of the auberge, I glanced around toward the nicknack shop common in all hotels and right out front on a book rack were several spaces taken up by 50 Shades of Grey. I wasn't sure if it was advertising or a check-in manual.

It mattered not to me since I still had Sesame Street incessantly rattling around my head and didn't catch the irony until later.

The one ear worm that started the whole day of tracking where I was and what was in my head was Misguided Angel by The Cowboy Junkies. Before I realized what I was whistling, I was already half way through the house of prayer. Honestly, I wasn't sure if my song choice was toward the parishioners of the church or directed toward myself. Either way, I was belting it out like Robert Schuller's booming voice echoing on a bright Sunday morning in the Crystal Cathedral.

I don't think they'll be putting Misguided Angel in the hymn book any time soon.

As humans, we do tend to get stuck on things. The ear worms reminded me that it's pretty easy to get things repeating over and over in our heads. It can be something someone said or did that keeps resurfacing. Maybe we blame them and maybe we don't, and yet it stays stuck. It can be something we said or did while wondering how we will be perceived. Acceptance is huge to every human being.

Being accepted is important to each of us. Making a faux pas sticks in our craw because we feel we might not be accepted. It's a tough place to get stuck. I'm still working on it.

Hmm... I'll deal with that later though. Sesame Street is back in my head and Bert is giving Ernie the gears. Have to deal with those two first.  

Namaste