OPM

other people's music.

one benefit of blog-hopping is that i get a chance to look into other people's musical tastes when i find them reminiscing about any particular song that remind them of something or someone.

in this particular instance, the singer is john legend. the song is a nice ballad entitled 'ordinary people'. and oh boy, is it shooting way up on my own private billboards hot 100.

but i realize that even if songs are as public as can be, whatever personal significance they may hold for each and everyone of us is a deeply unique and personal thing. what the words of one song inspires in one person cannot be expected to inspire the same in another. much less can we compare the places where those reactions come from.

so why is this particular song inspiring a response in me?

well, the words speak to me not in the name of some distant memory but more to how i see myself at the moment:

We're just ordinary people
We don't know which way to go
'Cause we're just ordinary people
Maybe we should take it slow

and it's true. i'm just an ordinary boy. an ordinary human being who asked another ordinary boy to love him back. maybe because i didn't know which way to go, that i would find myself in the thick of a feeling that gets too much to bear sometimes. a feeling that makes me sick at times.

but now, it makes sense. i'm just an ordinary boy. with ordinary feelings. trying to live a more than ordinary life. and in the rush to live that life, i find that maybe the irony lies in taking it slow.

be still, my beating heart. don't jump ahead of yourself.

that's how john legend's song comes to me. i'm just an ordinary person. maybe it's time to take it slow.

that is, until i come across some other person's music and am convinced i should take on a different tack.