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Let's "Drink Our Cup of Laughter"

Steve Winwood's "The Finer Things"

By Chris Dunmire, CurrentLiving.com

I am increasingly aware of my changing perceptions as I grow older, wiser. When Steve Winwood's song "The Finer Things" (Back in the High Life, 1986) came out over 20 years ago it was just another hit on the radio while I was occupied with Swatch Watches, entering high school, and moving from my hometown to another an hour and half away (it might as well have been on the other side of the world — this was waaay before e-mail and cell phones).

This morning, long after high school and Swatch Watches, I am investing my life force into doing work that feeds my soul. And as I listen to this song, I can't help but to think about all of the events, experiences, trials, and triumphs that have unfolded in my life over the last twenty-one years. I have a new consciousness — a new understanding — in Steve's words that now inspires me with tears.

While there is time
Let's go out and feel everything
If you hold me
I will let you into my dreams
For time is a river rolling into nowhere
We must live while we can
And we'll drink our cup of laughter

Life is sometimes poetic, tragic, mysterious, beautiful, and heart-wrenching all at the same time. How much can happen in a person's life in two decades? How much can happen in one day? Every adult person reading these words understands that twenty years of living, of experiencing, of hopes and dreams, of disasters and disappointments weaves into a unique tapestret story that will eventually become part of a larger work bound between two covers called birth and death. And as we wake each new day, we know where our stories began, but we don't know where they will end. Still, what we did yesterday feeds into today, and what we do today will feed into tomorrow.

Oh, I've been sad
And have walked bitter streets alone
And come morning
There's a good wind to blow me home
So time is a river rolling into nowhere
I will live while I can
I will have my ever after

I find it intriguing how a person can listen to the same piece of music and interpret it differently at various places in their life, growth, and development. This dynamic nature of being human is one of the most generous gifts we have, for it means that once we experience something when we're 14, we have the potential to continue that experience (or re-experience it) again differently when we're 35, not because the music changed, but because WE have changed. Quite possibly, so has our dance.

I put this song on my portable MP3 player and have been listening to it outside in the evenings while I water my flower and vegetable gardens. Since gardening is a new thing in my life this year, I am understanding the "Life is glowing inside you and me" life force concept more deeply. Over the last eight weeks I've been witnessing the miraculous growth that springs forth from the material embedded in a single seed. Life is glowing and growing inside of every living thing.

When I was a budding teenager I didn't have the ability to recognize the wisdom embedded in some song lyrics, nor the foresight to understand how important and true poetic words really are. Yes, we must live while we can, and let's not forget to drink our cup of laughter.

We go so fast, why don't we make it last
Life is glowing inside you and me
Please take my hand, here where I stand
Won't you come out and dance with me
Come see, with me, come see

Thank you, Steve. •

© 2007 Chris Dunmire, CurrentLiving.com. All rights reserved. (06/25/07) Please do not duplicate this article elsewhere without my permission.

About the Author
Chris Dunmire is creatively engaged in life as an artist, writer, humorist, and publisher of the popular Creativity Portal Web site. She's trained as a creativity coach with Eric Maisel, Ph.D., and develops projects and playbooks to encourage creative thinking, artistic expression, and play in people of all ages. Learn more about Chris's books at CreativeSlush.com.