Principal's Point of View: Feasting and Dancing in Jerusalem

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Feasting and Dancing in Jerusalem

So I am not a teenage any longer. In fact, I haven't been one for quite a few years. Anyway, I realized a few months back that I still have teenage trait left in me (no, not my sense of humor as that is more like a 12 year old). I still have songs that define my life. In the last eighteen months, there are three songs that tell a lot about me.

This Year by The Mountain Goats

Firework by Katy Perry

Chicago by Sufjan Stevens

This Year is a song aimed squarely at a demographic more than 20-years my junior. I don't connect much with the whole teen angst thing. My teen years were not very angsty, and I am not so angsty now. Except...last year was pretty tough for me. (For most of that story, please read this post). Anyway, my connection to this song was really only with the last line and the chorus:

Image via Wikipedia

There will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me

A powerful, hopeful mantra as I listened to that song about seven million times.

During the spring of 2011, things started to pick up for me. Sometime during the winter, I, along with 3 zillion other folks, watched a Texas high school lip dub of Firework by Katy Perry on YouTube. While not my usual style of music, I was hooked and added the song to my happy-songs playlist. Over the course of a few weeks in the spring, I drove from Massachusetts to and from and all over Vermont. As my interviewing confidence grew, I kept turning up the volume on Firework. Some of the lines I like best are:

"Cause baby you're a firework

Come on show them what you're worth"

Katy Perry dancing with others at the Buda Cas...

Image via Wikipedia

"If you only knew what the future holds

After a hurricane comes a rainbow"

"Maybe you're the reason why all the doors are closed

So you could open one that leads you to the prefect road"

"It's always been inside of you, you, you

And now it's time to let it through"

Catchy? Sure. Trite? Absolutely. Beneath an educated, professional? Definitely. Did I listen to this seven million times also? You bet.

Well time went on as it always does, and we moved to another town. Getting the principalship at Wolcott Elementary School, moving to Vermont, and finally selling our old house in Massachusetts has made for a great New Year.

Image via Wikipedia

During these past few months since the move north, I have listened frequently to Chicago by Sufjan Stevens. Once again, a song aimed at a very different audience, spoke to me. The hook was the beauty of the song, but the refrain at the end seems to sum up my learning of late:

we had our mindset
(I made a lot of mistakes)
all things know, all things know
(I made a lot of mistakes)
you had to find it
(I made a lot of mistakes)
all things go, all things go
(I made a lot of mistakes)

So, that is me in song (at least recently). Going forward who knows what I will listen to. Maybe more of the same, maybe a whole different genre (countrified rap here I come).

Over the last eighteen months, I have come a long way. Things are good. We are not in Jerusalem, but we are feasting and dancing this year.