18 'till I Die - Say it, but live it too!

CHAPTER ONE – Inspired by the song

Listen to it here
18 ‘till I Die – Bryan Adams

I wanna be young the rest of my life
never say no - try anything twice
til the angels come and ask me to fly
I'm gonna be 18 til I die - 18 til I die

can't live forever that's wishful thinkin'
who ever said that must of bin' drinkin'
don't wanna grow up I don't see why
I couldn't care less if time flies by

18 til I die - gonna be 18 til I die
it sure feels good to be alive
someday I'll be 18 goin' on 55! - 18 til I die

anyway - I just wanna say
why bother with what happened yesterday
it's not my style I live for the minute
if ya wanna stay young get both feet in it - 18 til I die

a 'lil bit of this - a 'lil bit of that
'lil bit of everything - gotta get on track
it's not how ya look, it's what ya feel inside
I don't care when - I don't need ta know why

18 til I die - gonna be 18 til I die
ya it sure feels good to be alive
someday I'll be 18 goin' on 55! - 18 til I die
ya there's one thing for sure - I'm sure gonna try

don't worry 'bout the future - forget about the past
gonna have a ball - ya we're gonna have a blast
gonna make it last - 18 til I die

CHAPTER 2 – The Theme of This Post

I’ve been asked over the last little while “So, what’s this fascination you have with Bryan Adams?” One of my DJs, A., feels he’s an arrogant man – telling me stories of what he’s heard about Adam’s “particular” nature.

“I heard he did a recording session at a Calgary studio and bitched about the CHAIRS in the studio – they weren’t comfortable… he couldn’t “work properly”…

Well, come on, A. If YOU were paying hundreds of dollars per hour to use a facility, wouldn’t you expect the calibre of the service to at least match the dollars you were paying?

The guy works hard – he’s dedicated to his craft, and he’s good at it. He’s been accused of being a work-a-holic – also been praised as one of the hardest working individuals in the industry.

And look what he has to show for it.

He also writes songs that I relate to – sometimes written dangerously close enough to my soul – they could have come right out of my own head.

When I recently acquired the DVD of the Lisbon show, I watched the energy with which he delivered the messages of his music. Here’s a guy – at 42 or 43 singing about how he’s really 18 at heart. Good advice in this song – “it's not how ya look, it's what ya feel inside”. Wow, that line spoke to me.

In a world full of “how’s my hair?”, who cares? If you’re messed up INSIDE, THAT will overpower everything on the outside. Charisma, physical beauty… their charms are all lost when the person inside the body is… well… not whole. In my opinion, when you have your “poop in a group” and you love yourself to the point it shows through in EVERYTHING you do, THAT is true beauty.

Here’s a guy who is true.
He lives what he sings… or he sings about what he lives.

When you’re all about
“why bother with what happened yesterday,
it's not my style I live for the minute,
if ya wanna stay young get both feet in it”,

chances are you’ll have a full, rich life.


CHAPTER 3 – The Story of W., and what perfect timing for this post

Speaking of full, rich life and actually living it…

I received a rather mysterious phone call yesterday afternoon. The caller didn’t identify herself – simply said “Hello Mr. H., how are you? I’m gonna try your cell, and if not I will give you a call later – you’ll never guess who this is…”

Mysterious, indeed. The same caller in fact left a message there as well. Again, no name, but… a number!

Oh, isn’t THIS interesting!

Could it be a member of the PSL? Let's see!

I called the number. The voice answered. I figured it would be just too straight-laced to say “Hi, this is Dave… you left me a message?” No. I needed a good line. Think, think, think…

Now, anyone who knows S., knows she has this thing for Keanu Reeves. The first line that popped into my head was straight out of Speed at the scene where the detectives discover the mad bomber in a freight elevator. Grabbing hold of the cables and sliding down to the roof of the elevator car, Reeves’ character says “Would our mystery guest please sign in!”

I figured it an appropriate line. Considering the mystery.

Caller: “Hello?”
Me “Would our mystery guest please sign in!”
Caller: “Well, hello, DAVID.”
Me: “Hello, W.”
(yes, by this point I had figured out who it was… and by voice recognition. If you remember back to Sarah’s post on discovering the long-lost blogger buddy, I had mostly figured out who it was by an audio post he’d placed on the blog – having heard his voice in another audio post around Christmas under his other guise)

Now, this was not the voice of ANYONE in my daily life. In fact, it was a voice from the relatively distant past. Three years, in fact.

Years ago – probably 6 or 7 to be more accurate – there used to be a little picture framing shop around the corner from my house. I had some work done there and had made friends with one of the framers, W.

I soon discovered that W. was one of those people who would consistently be here, then not. She would up and disappear for MONTHS, sometimes even YEARS. Then, out of the clear blue sky, she’d call. We’d hang out, talk about life, the universe, what we’ve been up to during her current hiatus, then…

poof…

she’d be gone again.

Why do I share such a lengthy story? Partly because it’s in my nature to do so, and partly to demonstrate two things.

1. In reference to my previous post, W. is a prime example of a friend who, for all intents and purposes isn’t here. Ever. Except for the occasional telephone call or a visit for tea every… three years… give or take a year.

2. In reference to the theme of THIS post (which I’m sure you’re thinking by this point I’ve forgotten because of this rather lengthy tangent) W. and I discussed something very relevant. She had finally found her dream job. We talked about this, and I discovered that she was truly living the life she dreamed of – at least in the work world. She was MOTIVATED, DRIVEN FROM HER SOUL to get up at 5, work a 16 hour day, sleep out of necessity and repeat the process the next day… but seemingly without “burnout”, just a want to do MORE OF IT.

This is what I see in Bryan Adams. It’s reflected in his music and his stage presence.

Reminds me of something my cousin in Seattle said to me with reference to how he sees working for himself… or working in general I suppose. He would say

“Shit, or get off the pot!”

…something like, oh, say…

“if ya wanna stay young get both feet in it!”

I’ve included a link to listen to the song.

I strongly urge you to kick back in your chair – better yet, get up out of it and dance…

Dance like a fool!

Crank it up!