And May You Stay

Hi Young Isaac !

We’ve yet to meet …

But you are Right at the Top of my Bucket List of the people I want to meet …

 

You were born in Haywards Heath in the Mighty County of Sussex just couple of months ago on Sunday 12^th April. 

Right at the peak of the Covid-19 epidemic.

What a Top Tale your Mum has to tell you.

Make sure she begins Right at the Very Beginning – where all Top Tales should begin –

On the patio at the Lime Wood hotel in the New Forest.

She’ll go on to tell you about her Wedding Day at The Montagu Arms in Beaulieu.

As you go through your Life, I hope that - like me - you’ll love to hear and to tell Top Tales.

 

As well as Top Tales, I also hope that you’ll enjoy Music.

In the swift whirl of time Music is a constant

Reminding us of what we were and of that toward which we aspire

Living with Music by Ralph Ellison

During the Covid-19 pandemic, on Facebook The Lads ^* & I have been playing Sounds of Our Decades on Facebook.

A couple of Top Tunes each day

Once you’ve chosen the Performer, you can’t choose them again

* ‘ Lads ’ is not Gender specific.

And they’ll still be The Lads ... ... even when they’re all Old Age Pensioners !!

 

I started back in 1959 with Livin’ Doll by Cliff Richard.

The first Top Tune I remember & the favourite record of teenage sisters Barbara & Irene Iles, who regularly babysat me. 

And I ended in 2019 with Someone You Loved by Taylor Swift.

 I was getting kinda used to being someone you Loved

As you go through Life… you may well be on both sides of that equation !!

If our Love Song
Could fly over mountains
Could laugh at the ocean
Just like the films

There's no reason
To feel all the hard times
To lay down the hard lines
It's absolutely true

Sounds of Our Decades – 1986: Absolute Beginners by David Bowie

 

Along the way there have been so many, many Top Tunes & Performers.

You have the whole of your Life ahead of you, so what can Top Performers tell you that might help you just a little ?

Well, as I write this Blog in many countries there are #BlackLivesMatter demonstrations.

"The Battles that count aren't the ones for Gold medals.

The Struggles within yourself — the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us that's where it's at.”

Blackthink: My Life as Black Man and White Man by Jesse Owens

Athlete and 4 times Olympic gold medallist in 1936 at the Berlin Games

 

You might like to start with choosing  Your Values.

The King explained what Values are all about:

Sounds of Our Decades – 1969: Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley

I don’t suppose everything will go just as you want; that is just how it is in Everyone’s Life.

When things go really, really wrong … It is all too tempting to simply find someone to blame; whether they are guilty or not.

It is always much more useful to follow Don's advice:

Sounds of Our Decades – ‘80s: Boys of Summer by Don Henley

My Favourite Song

But I can see you
Your brown skin shining in the sun
You got your hair combed back and your
Sunglasses on baby

I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the Boys of Summer have gone

Of course, you’ll come across plenty of people who ‘ Talk A Good Game ‘ when it comes to their own Values.

Watch  - very closely - what they do when they are really up against it & (perhaps ) think no one is watching them …

Tom Petty told us what we all should do when the going gets tough, really tough:

Sounds of Our Decades – 1989: I Won’t Back Down by Tom Petty

We should just touch on the World of Work.

Billy calls it absolutely right:

Sounds of Our Decades – 1977: Always A Woman to Me by Billy Joel

So, Isaac, before I tell about The Final Song, I’d like to mention one other crucial aspect of Life:  

  Friends

Over 2,000 years ago Cicero wrote:

Suppose a god carried you far away to a place where you were granted an abundance of every material good that nature could wish for—but you were denied the possibility of ever seeing or talking with another human being.

Wouldn’t you have to be as hard as iron to endure that sort of life?

Wouldn’t you, utterly alone, lose every capacity for joy and pleasure?

De Amicitia - “On Friendship” by Marcellus Cicero

Friends  - once found  - are to be cherished !

You may well find yours in the local park, at school, at college, at work …

But they may be found in unexpected places too … …

Sounds of Our Decades – ‘90s: Different Corner by George Michael

I mentioned that for 2019 - the final year of Sounds of Our Decades - the song I chose was Someone You Loved by Taylor Swift.

A few years ago I was Out Rambling across Northern Spain …

All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking
Twilight of the Idols by Friedrich Nietzsche

One day I was about a dozen miles west of Leon, when a Young Girl ( who grew up 30 years after me and lives 3,000 miles away from where I live) caught me up & said:

Wanna be a Friend for Life ?

It turns out we both did !!!

She’s a Big Fan of Taylor Swift … & now so am I !!

You’ll work  out how to choose your own friends.

If I may give some advice …

Never ever choose those who are Unkind.

Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary?

The Little White Bird by JM Barrie

---

And The Final One ?

It was written by a Genius.

The only Top Performer ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature !

I don’t usually go for Covers …

   But every Rule has an Exception !

My choice was performed at a Celebration of the Life of another Genius …

Isaac, you have been blessed to be born to a Mum & Dad  - Emma & James -  whose Love for you will keep you safe all the days of your Life.

But the Genius whose Life was being celebrated had a very unpromising start to his Life.

Born on Friday 24 February 1955, Steve’s genetic parents gave him up for Adoption.

His first adopted parents decided they wanted a Girl.

But Paul & Clara took him it.

Paul was a car mechanic & in their house’s garage in Mountain View in California he taught his son the love of making things.

His son went on to found a business that would help Change the World.

He would become a Billionaire.

Indeed Steve’s story is the story of all our lives…

No matter how Unpromising Our Beginnings… We can all help Change the World.

But at any point  - & often completely out of the blue - whatever we have or haven’t achieved… … as John Lennon said:

Sounds of Our Decades – 1975: Imagine by John Lennon

On Wednesday 5 October 2011 Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, died of respiratory failure related to a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour.

He was just 56.

At the Celebration of Steve Jobs’ Life Norah Jones sang this song - my Final One - written by Bob Dylan:

Sounds of Our Decades – THE FINAL ONE

1974: ' Forever Young ' written by Bob Dylan for his Album 'Planet Waves'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jEKY-3eNZc

 Well, that's pretty much all from me ...

So, Young Isaac,

I wish a Long & Happy Life !!!

May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift

May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung

And May You Stay … Forever Young

With Love, Young Ric xx

   Wednesday 24 June 2020