Everything's a Waltz

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After the champagne has gone flat, the beginning of the year can be a trying time, especially in this world of digital processing and the Internet of things. After last year's flurry of massive hacks, a number of entities are asking us to change passwords or add an additional level of security with multiple passwords. My students have to log onto new course sites often encountering a "new normal" mandated by software "updates." Same with your "smarter than you are" phone. A visit to the doctor or your pharmacy often requires a new insurance card and a strong suggestion that you "go paperless" and conduct your business online. Ditto your bank. In short, the stress can be a bit overwhelming.  

This is where you think I am going to direct you to my coloring book and suggest you set aside time each day to color, meditate and relax. And that is an excellent idea, but it isn't where I am headed right now.  Rather I am thinking about a particular country song - or more accurately what we used to call a "country western” song.

No, I am not thinking of the “perfect country western” addition to You Never Even Call Me by My Name that Steve Goodman added for David Allen Coe so he could sing the perfect country western song. That additional piece goes like this:

"Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison

And I went to pick her up in the rain

But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck

She got runned over by a damned old train”

Good for a giggle perhaps we admit as we smugly acknowledge that we really don’t listen to David Allen Coe very often - or country music for that matter.  Well, if you don’t you are missing some delightfully insightful poetry. And remember Dylan just won the Nobel Prize for Literature - something that no doubt has my parent’s generation spinning in their graves.  The lyric I am referring to is from an infectious little song [co-written with wife Patsy and Ron Peterson] that Ed Bruce sang called When You Fall in Love Everything’s A Waltz.  It opens like this:

"We don't dance the two-step anymore

All we need's a small part of the floor

The band can go on playin' almost anything it wants

When you fall in love everything's a waltz"

And here is the “easing into the New Year” part.  The notion is that your emotional state can transform everything around you.  So when you start running into all those “starting the year” hassles enumerated above, do everything you can to actually talk to a human being about your concerns, and make the conversation a waltz.  Remember, these folks are people who deal with complaints all day long. They are accustomed to people hollering at them.  Don’t be one of those people.  

When they say “How can I help you?” or just even “Hello.” Answer in three-quarter time: “Boy, I hope you can help me. I think I may have done something wrong.” That already disarms them as they are used to people assuming thatthey have not only done something wrong, but have done so with malicious intent.  I find they often respond to a waltz opening with something like, “Well, let’s see what is going on,” and then go out of their way to help you. 

Continue the conversation in waltz time, remembering that this is the person who can help you. Truth is I doubt that the person who answers complaints to pay the bills rarely sees that job as defining themselves. More likely there is a wannabe poet, musician, novelist, or struggling single parent on the other end of the line.  Inviting them to waltz through your problem may not only solve your problem, but puts a little waltz into their day as well.

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