Thursday, August 29, 2013

Service can come in all shapes and sizes.

This story is very touching because it's based on something real: a 73 year romance. But it's also the story of a songwriter who performed an act of love. An act of service to another.



After viewing this video, it occurred to me that I have at least a few songs on Tales from the Bonus Round that were written in just this manner, including the true story of the mother of a soldier she's just driven to the airport, and has come home to find all the games and toys he bought during the break scattered all over the floor.

Writing with, and for, other people is something I love doing. Back in L.A., at Kulak's Woodshed, Marc Platt and I ran a "drop-in" songwriter class. We'd get some young people, but the most interesting, to me, were the women, all over 40, who'd been singing or working around the periphery of the songwriting world, and hadn't really tried writing.

I wrote on the WDS board that this act of service to this man, donating their time and talent, is now creating a community of people who are deeply touched. And the community is now propelling this man on a great adventure of being able to share his love for this woman. And she is gorgeous in those old pics.

But let's also be fair to the musicians, Jacob Colgan and "Green Shoe Studios," we wouldn't have sat there listening to the old man's version of this song. It would not exist without them.

And I'm glad they had the smarts to make a good video about it. 

No comments: