Trying Again, This Time with a Theme

My last post in my now defunct old blog was entitled, "I don't get blogging." And to some degree I continue to feel that way. On one level the notion that anybody besides my mom really cares, much less would read, what I write about online seems the ultimate in self aggrandizement and narcissism. On the other hand, it is kinda fun to read other peoples' blogs when they are well written, have a unique angle or I learn something by reading them. And then there was the issue of my attention span - what would keep me interested enough to post regularly?

And on a flight home to DC from LA on Friday it hit me. Music. If there is anything that has consistently kept my interest for my conscious life it has been music. From singing in Oliver in 2nd grade, to pretending to be Laurie Partridge, playing organ on the back of my parents' couch, to locking the door and blasting Led Zeppelin, writing out the words to the Allman Brothers for my brother Chuck (all before the age of 18)...to listening to Pandora at work at GlobalGiving to making playlists for my Women's Foundation friends out of the 4,586 songs I currently have on my iPod. Music has been a constant, and joyful part of my life. Every day.

What struck me on that plane Friday? Why write? Why music? One reason was that Friday I had the total pleasure of meeting a woman who is a legend in American music - Carole Bayer Sager. When I was a teenager, her songs were the soundtrack to many of my days and nights - I must've listened to "Midnight Blue," sung by Melissa Manchester, about 200 times. And recently she was introduced to GlobalGiving and thinks what we are doing is great. So one of my colleagues and I visited with her over lunch at her home in LA. And over lunch among her platinum records, her guitars signed by Dylan, Springsteen and Sting, and her studio, I felt energized, alive, fired up.

And on the plane flying back, listening to a mix of music that spans my eclectic tastes, I decided that I could actually find something that would keep my attention - and maybe provide that frame for some musings that would be worth writing down. Who cares who reads them (other than mom), if it's a chance for me to think about, and reflect on, my favorite music.

Tomorrow, the first song in the playlist