It's been a while since I wrote a blog, but I've been thinking about this one for a while. Like all good stories, it starts with a car ride and songs blasting out of the radio. The wrong ones, though - or so I thought. See, while I've learned to enjoy a song with a good beat and message, slow songs have never been my thing. Not the ones at dances when everyone either dances with their partner or slowly rotates in circles with their hands in their pockets trying to avoid eye contact (totally cool with those), but the ones on car rides that talk about love and loss and all that gross stuff. Whenever they came on the radio, I had a knee-jerk reaction to flip the radio station to something with a faster beat, but my mom, she of the wise reflective sort, always told me to keep it on and I would grumble a little and try to tune it out.
After a while, though, I realized that maybe slow songs have a place in my world. I'm a guy who loves to go fast, at pretty much everything. My mind moves a hundred miles an hour and I have a chronic inability to sit still (just ask my dad at church). I'm NOT a guy who sits down and smells the roses, who relaxes on a hammock or who takes 30 minute bathes. I'd rather be running around, playing golf or basketball or reading a good book. But what I realized was that maybe a little reflection isn't a bad thing. If you take information and process it fast, sometimes you don't get the full meaning out of it. For instance, bad things happen in life. For me, it can be natural to try and "take these in stride", to just ignore them and go on with my life as usual. However, what I've found is that it's actually better to just sit down and reflect on these things instead of push them to the side. That way, I can come to a conclusion instead of pretending they aren't happening, and they don't build up and push me to a tipping point. I've gotten into a good routine of praying at night for 5-10 minutes, and it helps me realize that these things I worry about aren't just on my shoulders and I can get them off my chest.
Rounding back to my point, I think a lot of slow songs offer a perfect opportunity to just have a 3 minute period of reflection, and it can help you feel better as you attack the rest of your day. I don't mean to say that my playlists are full of slow songs now, and I'll still take Glorious by Macklemore over Stay with Me by Sam Smith, but I'm starting to realize that even the fastest cars have a lower gear, and that slowing down does help your mileage: both figuratively and literally. Anyways, that's my spiel for the new year. See you around.
Mason Bonn.
(Insert inspirational picture of reflection here)
