Anthropology of an American Girl

One of my favorite books is Anthropology of an American Girl. It’s a feminist Catcher in the Rye, juicy with over ripened spoils spilling out somewhere between childhood and adulthood. In the book, between every chapter is a piece of a song.

I was always driving around with the radio on back then. Do you remember that time? Bopping along with my steering wheel as a beau. My head was so full of romance and anxiety and ambition that every ballad spilling through the speakers seemed to be only for me.

I’m not much of a music person these days. I hardly ever drive, and when I do my kids prefer to chat versus listen to the radio. But occasionally a song’s words stop me in my tracks.

I care about words, and so I can’t help but listen to lyrics. And over the last few years, a handful songs rise to the top that have floated between the pages of my life, seemingly setting the pace. Sometimes they take me back and sometimes they drive me forward. None are the best songs on the radio, but what they make me feel is something else.

Shut up and dance

Oh don’t you dare look back
Just keep your eyes on me
I said you’re holding back
She said shut up and dance with me

I know, corny, but hear me out. This is about having a bias towards action. It’s about jumping in, 100%, and giving your full, vulnerable self to the crazy. It’s about expecting one another to jump in. It’s how I want to live. It’s how I want everyone to live.

On a more intimate note, it’s ironic because the night I met my husband I asked him to dance and he said, “no.” But he called me the next day, so I’ve been convinced to invite him to the lifelong dance party.

Renegades

All hail the underdogs
All hail the new kids
All hail the outlaws
Spielberg’s and Kubrick’s

It’s our time to make a move
It’s our time to make amends
It’s our time to break the rules
Let’s begin

This song used to play at the office all the time when I first started at Inspire, and it comes up on my Pandora list frequently. It could be the Inspire theme song. It’s everything I feel when I thing about our brand and the opportunity that building a new company represents. The urgency, the dare-devilishness. It’s like a runner’s high. It kind of hurts, but the rush is like nothing else.

Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, she cut your hair

To me this song embodies two things: 1) the vulnerability of love and the 2) amazing capacity for strength in women.

On vulnerability- this is all kinds of love. It’s the idea that loving anything means giving up part of yourself and the ongoing risk of losing more by losing that person or thing you love everyday. And even in love, that choice to become less you so that you can become more together. It’s a shadowy side, they don’t tell you about it in the fairytales. But that’s what makes the choice to love so meaningful, personal, real, right?

The reference here to Samson and Delilah is one of reasons I named my daughter Delilah. She who put the strongest man in the world in his place with a scissors. In a world where gender politics remain imperfect, I wanted strength and courage for my little redhead.

Happy

Here come bad news, talking this and that
(Yeah) Well, give me all you got, and don’t hold it back
(Yeah) Well, I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine
(Yeah) No offense to you, don’t waste your time
Here’s why

Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth

This has been my favorite Alexa song recently. Life has been a little nuts and not uncomplicated, but I’ve been loving the pace and feeling overwhelmed with joy for the life I lead. I love my work, I love my family, I love my home. I’m happy. I’m resolved to squash doubt and give this life my all and I’ve never felt more unstoppable.