E.L.E.

In high school I worked for my friend, Vince. As a Boy Scout, Vince had started a business producing Arrow of Light awards for Cub Scout groups around the world as they made their graduation to Boy Scout. It wasn't a particularly intense work environment—usually just Vince, me, and a couple of other buddies in Vince's unfinished basement-turned-woodshop choppin' it up, making arrows, and tying feathers together. 

Those details aren't abundantly necessary for the story, but fun nonetheless. 

On any given working evening, our soundtrack was provided by a free stream of Pandora Radio or lyric videos played from YouTube. Ads and randomness. At the time, streaming wasn't brand new, but was new enough that none of us high schoolers were paying for a subscription and Vince, who is a few years older than we are (and is getting married in a couple months... Go Vince!), was too cheap to accommodate.

One of our favorites was a Black Eyed Peas joint called "Where is the Love?"

We had a rule that we were not allowed to intentionally play the song, we had to leave it up to God, chance, and the shuffled Pandora stream to play it for us, only if we were worthy. 

Usually, if we were, there were four-and-a-half minutes where no work got done. Vince, ever the benevolent employer, didn't seem to mind. 

All this is to say that, for the second day in a row, The Burden will remark on a set of lyrics and their application in the world. 

Rather intentionally, The Burden avoids political commentary, so will refrain from some of the more politically charged lines of this bop. 

What I will, however, note, is will.i.am's sage advice about the relationship between hate and anger: "when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah."

Yeah. 

I think that more than anything I have become overwhelmed with such a sense of anger in the world. Everyone seems to be pissed off at someone or something else. Above all, it makes me sad, and sadder still because I sometimes fit that bill. 

We're angry at work; we build resentment towards loved ones; we cuss the government to the moon; we disdain other people for forgetting to turn their blinker on till the last second and we don't get to make the turn in the traffic gap we otherwise would have had we just KNOWN what they were doing... I know that one's not just me. 

Anger's a gassy feeling. We allow it to fester and expand until it all comes out in one big explosion that usually mimics hate. 

But it isn't hate, right? 

No. Never. Not me. 

Here's the thing, I've got a patented RBF; I'm not particularly outgoing towards people my own age; I don't exercise a lot of inflection in my vocal tones; I tend to pessimize most situations; and on any given day when given the time, I could complain anyone's ears off about something or another. 

I don't like hate though. And I don't like anger. Even though it's easy to pin those things on me. 

My friend and colleague, Thomas, likes to remind me of a wise musing from Jackie Moon, star hooper for the Flint Tropics: "E.L.E. Everybody love everybody."

Pretty good call to action. Straightforward. I like it. 

Love's tough, I think I've talked about it a little bit here on The Burden. Love's not always a friendly pat on the back and goin' about your day, but it's also certainly not hate and it's certainly not a whole lot of anger. 

Whatever it is though, there definitely needs to be more of it. 

So where's the love, y'all? 

I'd also be remiss if I didn't offer credit to some of the guys on the baseball team I coach. They've introduced a new motto for the year: P.P.T. 

That's the Power of Positive Thinking and it can get you pretty far in life. But more on that another day. 

Today's Burden: E.L.E. 

And go listen to that song. It's a classic and is almost old enough for a beer.