“And the Band Played On…”

I was watching a 2011 episode of “Project Accessories”, and this week there were two designers eliminated from the race. One of the eliminated designers, when asked what her gut reaction was, shrugged with these parting words, “Life goes on …the show must go on…” she would continue to create and express herself through her accessory designs. It was a good attitude to have in face of apparent failure and damming criticism, but these don’t last. That’s worth remembering. In fact, we learn from them, becoming humbler and wiser.

Understandably, such things could make or break a person, yet like Scarlet O’Hara, heroine of “Gone with the Wind“, the disaster of one day may give life to a new day. Scarlet’s last words have stayed with me since I was 19, “Tomorrow is another day!”

This morning for some reason, I thought about that and a long forgotten song meandered into my mind from some remote memory. I can’t remember its title but it went,

“Casey would waltz with the strawberry blonde as the band played on, He’d glide ‘cross the floor with the girl he adored as the band played on, but his brain was so loaded it nearly exploded, the poor girl would shake with alarm, he’d marry the girl with the strawberry curl, and the band played on…”

I heard this song on my Dad’s record player when I was about eight and possibly have an inaccurate memory of the words, so anyone out there who knows this song, is welcome to correct me.

Life is like that, human beings are more resilient than we think even after being buffeted by waves large and small in Life’s ocean. It makes us the heroes of our own stories, and everyone has a story. So no matter what life may throw at you, remember you are worth more than you think, when you feel crumpled up and thrown away like a poem gone wrong.

Pick up that piece of writing and look at it again, it definitely holds something more than discordant words and phrases. Fame, wealth or popularity may elude us, but we still live, and the band of Life still plays on.

So let us dance through life and know that each stumble or misstep can create a new dance, till dancing is all we need to do through the mists of time.

To All my readers a “Happy New Year of hope, joy, peace and love. May the music carry you over hill and dale this year into the next”.