Thanks everyone! We had a great anniversary, and intend to continue it today, biking around Minneapolis to a few great music festivals.

Having a line like "Do you realize that everyone you know will die" is certainly an unusual one to put in the main hook. Definitely not something MAB would recommend for your new country hit! laugh And yet it's exactly what I find so refreshing about this song. People seem to sustain a faithful, nearly lifelong denial of that sentiment...although they tend to embrace it reluctantly in their wiser senior years. BUT WE RARELY THINK ABOUT OUR RESPONSE TO IT. I think that is sad...because it seems to me that a keen awareness of our mortality leads to a better respect for the time we have here on Earth, and a better perspective from which to make decisions. Seriously. This song reminds me that life is more precious and swift than we tend to acknowledge...especially as we take our boring rides to work, or watch a block of noisy commercials, or mow the lawn for the umpteenth time, or complain about the politician of our choice...

It reminds me to really love, with fervent abandon. It reminds me to learn people's names, and to care about them more. It reminds me what a ridiculous illusion it is to ever feel boredom, or despair, or relentless anger.

Life is not all hearts and flowers (or fabulous space-bubbles)...but it's keenly important to me to embrace the ever-present fact of our deaths--because it isn't so scary or sad when we truly accept it. Instead, it calms my anxieties about most of the silly BS we worry about all the time, and refocuses my attention on what really matters: love, family, friendship, and true appreciation of this rare and fleeting gift of life.

Do you realize...?

http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman