Monday Motivation! With Music

Welcome to our third installment of Monday motivation! This is a one-month interlude of motivational fun, as I’m doing some traveling and unable to write the regular bi-weekly news column. Enjoy! Regular Lit Mag News news roundups will resume in August.

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I recently came upon this cover of a Simon & Garfunkel song. It’s hard not to get teary-eyed when you watch it. I mean, watch it all the way to the end and look at Paul Simon’s face as he takes in what he’s witnessing.

(I realize this is the second time I’ve shared a Simon & Garfunkel cover song. I’m not obsessed with them by any means.)

(However, weirdly enough, my mother went to high school with Paul Simon. So maybe I do have a special place in my heart for the guy.)

(If you missed the first cover song I shared, when you are done here, go check that out. Because it will blow your mind.)

Anyhoo. Below you’ll find the second cover song.

When you watch, you will see Simon getting overcome with emotion. It’s powerful. We obviously cannot know what he is thinking. But what I imagine he is thinking has something to do with where he was when he wrote the song, the state of mind he was in, the state of mind America was in, the many rehearsals he had with his then-pal and bandmate Art in order to get the song exactly right.

I imagine, too, he’s thinking about how these young women envision their America, certainly a different vision than the one he had decades ago. And, how the song is completely different when sung by these two women, as it expresses their own struggles and longings, which are undoubtedly different from the struggles and longings felt by Simon and Garfunkel when the song was first released, in 1968.

Perhaps he is also thinking how the song is still completely the same, how its meaning and resonance carry over, connecting in just the way that his song did back then. That is after all the power of great art, its ability to transcend time and place and speak across cultures and across generations.

There is a reverence for Simon and Garfunkel in this performance, naturally. This is a tribute to their work. There is also, at the same time, a sense of passing the torch onto the next generation, giving the microphone to them. Now, it’s their turn to have their say. It’s their turn to build on what came before, and to make it their own.

Look, I know. Simon might not be thinking about any of this. Maybe he’s feeling a bit of indigestion from the spicy mustard he had at dinner, just before the concert.

But when you look at his face, his eyes, it does seem something deeper is going on. He appears to be viscerally feeling his music coming back to him through the tunnel of time. What an incredible experience that must be.

What I got to thinking, after watching this, was how when we write, we build on what we’ve read. We all have our favorite writers, the ones that we carried around in our minds when we were young, the ones we’ve kept close to our hearts in times when nothing else could get to those exact sore spots within us. The ones whose turns of phrase we will never forget, who taught us something about the world or maybe simply the craft of writing, who will be part of us always.

For this week’s motivational mojo, consider: what would happen if you wrote not only by building upon the work of those writers who inspired you, but actually imagined you were speaking directly to them? Just as these singers are speaking directly to Simon here, taking his work and re-claiming it, making it their own.

Don’t clam up! Imagine that this writer, or guide, whoever they are, loves your work unconditionally, supports you in your efforts implicitly. Write directly to them. Show them your music; give them your song.

Imagine that in a room full of people, this person will hear you. When you are done they will stand up and applaud you, no matter what. Trust that this person, more than anyone in the world, wants your words to be written. Write for them. Write to them.

It is your turn. They have passed the torch to you.

As with any writing prompt, you can take it or leave it. Or share your own favorite cover song in the comments below! (But do so later, after the day’s writing is done.)

For now, go forth, friends. Write your beautiful hearts out.

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