Let Your Inner Song Out

I can usually determine what kind of day we’re going to have here in the IP section by whether or not Carl sings at my desk. Yes, you heard that right. I frequently get "serenaded" by one of my attorneys when he is in a good mood. He has a pretty good voice, by the way, and he likes to compose new lyrics to familiar tunes to make them relevant to our work environment. This morning he started off with some tune I didn’t recognize, and naturally expected me to reply in song at 7:15 AM...

Him: [singing] Good Morning, Melanie, and how are you today?

Me: [talking] I’m just peachy.

Him: [singing] Please reply in song.

Me: [talking] I haven’t warmed up my vocal chords yet.

He went on half-talking and half-singing for 5 minutes about how and why I should sing more. Then he tells me that I especially need to practice singing for England.

Me: Huh? Why do I need to get ready to sing in England? Is there a music tour I’m going on that I don’t know about?

Him: True love requires singing. Let your song out. How else are you going to snag a husband in England without a song?

Me: [laughing] Ommmmm...so you’re back to that again, are you? [He’s been going on and on for months about how he feels my purpose on this trip to England is to find a duke, earl, lord or someone with aristocratic blood to marry.]

Him: [He paused for a moment to mentally compose his response.] Whether through your voice of through your heart, if you’re not singing, you must part.

Me: Wow! That’s--that’s something.

Him: Didn’t know I had the gift, did you?

Me: I knew you had something. Not sure I’d call it a gift. [We laughed some more, and he continued on with his rant.]

Actually, I love to sing. I just don’t like to sing publicly. No more of that! I grew up doing solos, duets and trios in church and school programs, and it was torture for me--the knocking knees, the faltering voice, the gulps mid-song, the sea of faces, etc. OK, so trios and duets weren't quite as bad, but those solos were just the worst! I’m shivering just thinking about it, or maybe I’m shivering because it’s 14 degrees below 0 this morning, and I still haven’t recovered my body heat after my mad dash from the car to the building. [One moment please...I’m gonna put on my gloves now.]

There that’s better. Where was I?

Anyway, I love to sing, but I just have a mediocre voice. It's not anything amazing at all. For one thing, I don't have a really strong voice. Part of that is a lack of confidence when it comes to singing, I guess. But I have been known to belt out along with Sarah Brightman while cleaning. Yes, I like to clean with Sarah or Michael [Buble], and I just can't listen to them--I must sing along, but even then I'm hoping my neighbors can't hear me over the vacuum. HA!

Throughout the day, I usually have a song going in my head even if it’s just the Smurfs theme song. La-lah, la-lah-lah-la... Or a show tune like I Could Have Danced All Night or some obscure Broadway song that Sarah Brightman has introduced me to like Meadowlark. Oh, I love that song! [sigh!]

Now Carl likes to walk by my desk singing one of those annoying ditties that gets in your head and then won’t leave like Don’t Worry Be Happy or In the Jungle. You know what I mean, right? You get those songs in your head, and all day you are trying to cleanse them out and get another tune going to replace them. Anything else would be better. Yeah, that drives me crazy, which is definitely a short drive some days.

Hmmmm...maybe I will take Carl's advice just this once. Maybe I should rehearse a song and be ready just in case I meet Mr. Right in an English garden or along a bike or walking trail in Indiana. At our meeting, I will burst into song...

*If ever I would leave you,
How could it be in spring-time?
Knowing how in spring I'm bewitched by you so?
Oh, no! not in spring-time!
Summer, winter or fall!
No, never could I leave you at all!*

What do you think? Should I pick something else? You don't think it's too much for a chance encounter, do you? HA!

I’m just kidding, of course.

Whatever you do and wherever you are today, I hope you release your inner song, as Carl suggests. Let it out. Whisper if you must, hum along as you will, whistle about your day, croon to your colleagues, yodel as you drive home, croon to the radio, but whatever you do release your inner song and share it. As for me, I'm going back to the previously scheduled song in my head now. And NO, I'm not going to tell you what it is. Some things are meant to be private... Hee hee!

*Taken from 1960's Camelot, selection from If Ever I Would Leave You, music and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe