Although it’s not my favorite song (even by Eric Clapton), it has the ability to transport me to a time when I had fewer responsibilities and cares. I remember Tom Cruise in a t-shirt that just said “Vince” and swinging a pool cue like it was some kind of weapon. I’ve never seen the movie “The Color of Money” but the video paints a decent picture and adds a good visual to the song. Clapton latches onto the duality that shows up often in this world. The way that you use it is crucial. We have choices and need to see them.
Although I didn’t originally intend to write about 9/11, it seems to fit. There is obviously a lot of distance between that tragedy and the aftermath of war and sorrow. All of the students that I teach now weren’t even alive when it happened. So how does one look at an event that was reality but is now history? Did we use that moment in time correctly? I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of unity after that tragedy and now the divisiveness in our country seems to be the tragedy. People gave literal blood, sweat and tears. Now we seem to barely give a damn!
I’ve always been conflicted about 9/11 because although it was definitively a tragedy that I wish never happened, it brought my ex-wife and I together (not directly but circumstantially). Now I even have mixed emotions about that. But as the song says, it’s in the way that you use it. Tools can be used as weapons and vice versa. Our darkest hours can become the light that brightens the world but only if we use it correctly. We cannot wallow or whine and we must not forget. Yet we need to find the right mixture of remembrance with progress. If we are always living in the past then the wounds never heal and we cut ourselves with a weapon that could be a tool of hope.
So as you go through your day, many things will be thrown at you. Compliments, insults, opportunities, setbacks and like everything else, “it’s in the way that you use it! It comes and it goes. It’s in the way that you use it. Boy don’t you know! And if you lie you will lose it. Feelings will show. So don’t you ever abuse it. Don’t let it go!”
This is your shot! Don’t be afraid to take it!
Pete
Huryk Unlimited 