The Chanteuse and Free Will

 

chanteuse - a female singer, especially in a nightclub; chanteur, a male singer (Google). 

As a professional singer-songwriter, I started out forty years ago as a chanteuse, touring with a show band that performed in hotel lounges or nightclubs. Although I didn't especially like being a bona fide night owl, I loved my bandmates and the work itself. In the present, I am no longer nocturnal, yet I still manage to perform for senior audiences in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. On occasion, my  accompanist, also a former chanteuse, and I will wind up in a shelter for abused women and children or a public library, performing during the day or early evening. Admittedly, I miss my all-male colleagues, but as a purveyor of joy, not sorrow, I still adore what I do. 

For my birthday last Sunday, a dear friend from college sent me a refrigerator magnet displaying an aphorism with metaphorical value that everyone can relate to, especially singers, even those that croon in the shower. In chiaroscuro tones, it reminds: "Those who wish to sing always find a song." "Sing" and "song" are enlarged in black bold type for obvious emphasis. I don't think my friend was thinking figuratively when she purchased the mini plaque for me, but as a singer who also taught high school English, I can't help but go beyond the surface meaning because an English teacher wouldn't be an English teacher sans literary exegesis. This one isn't hard to fathom since the underlying implication is quite apparent and points to another adage: "If there is a will, there is a way." 

If you want to do anything in life, particularly something positive and upbeat like entertaining others, you surely can. Even if you don't think you have the natural talent, confident you can always find a way because you have been endowed with what is known as free will, the ability to make definitive choices. Free will is somewhat of a super power, the comic book heroes and heroines like Superman and Wonder Woman each possess one or more. However, most don't recognize that free will is one because people make dozens of choices on a daily basis, starting with making the decision to get out of bed in the morning. With each choice, you are propelled in a direction–positive or negative–depending on the quality of each decision. You are in control as you are behind the wheel. When you see the option, though, steer toward the upbeat song with the positive message, not the dreadful dirge. Lately, I'm hearing too many dirges, too many excuses as to why you can't do what you want to do or should do, so much so that I am convinced that the excuse alone will inevitably annihilate the human race altogether. 

Perhaps there should be a secondary magnet to accompany the one that my friend gave me. Perhaps it should be Nike's slogan: "Just do it." Do what is right and makes sense. Today, steer the wheel in that direction. 

#word of the day, #vocabulary, #writers, #writers and poets, #words, #inspiration, #optimism, #inspiring words, #humor, #spilled thoughts, #motivation, #inspirational thoughts, #inspiration, #inspirational words, #words of wisdom, #affirmation, #optimism, #poets and writers, #writers community, #writers, #readers #writing