A friend recently e-mailed me a YouTube link for the Cat Stevens song "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out" from the movie Harold and Maude. This is my favorite movie of all time...right up there with To Kill A Mockingbird. Anyway, the song is also one of my favorites of all time.
So, I was out walking my two dogs yesterday morning when that song came on my iPod. It was a beautiful, clear and sunny day here in New York and I was walking past a wall of honeysuckle, my favorite vine. So many favorite things all in a row was making for a great time. As the dogs and I were bounding up the block, a little boy came up alongside me and began walking next to me. He was skipping and throwing his arms up in the air and, for a moment, I thought he was hearing the same song and reacting to it. I remembered then that I had headphones in my ears and that he couldn't hear the song at all. I realized that kids walk around with all that unbridled joy in them all the time and they wear it like a badge of honor. Skipping, singing, arms flailing. So, if you want to be free, be free.