That Song

Ever become obsessed with a song for no apparent reason? Maybe I’m alone in that insanity. Last weekend I was sitting in the living room knitting, as usual, and looking for something to watch on the boob. My weekend tv watching is almost exclusively movies, as there are no interesting series to watch. We have digital cable and several of the movie channels, so I always have a plethora from which to choose. I have only one rule: If I haven’t seen it before, I can only watch it from the beginning. No watching movies after they’ve already started, if they're not personal re-runs. Anyway, I’m surfing around on Saturday and come across A Walk to Remember. I’ve seen it before, but anything else promising that I hadn’t seen had already started. This is one of those movies that I was initially reluctant to see because of the teen idol factor and my general loathing of all things teeny-bopperish. I can’t remember why I ended up watching it the first time, but upon discovering that it was showing again, I remember thinking, “This has that song in it. I’d like to hear it again.” Yes, indeed, I decided to watch a movie just to hear a particular song. Said song is "Only Hope", sung by Mandy Moore, but written by Switchfoot. At its core, it's a Christian song, but in the context of this movie, it’s a sappy love song. For some reason, it stayed in my mind. Not in the drive-you-to-distraction way that "Yellow Submarine" gets stuck in your head, but in a good way. I’m not sure what it is that I like about it. Mandy Moore has a very clear and beautiful voice, and I suppose that the singer in me envies that sound just a little. I’m also attracted to the words—the idea that a person can have that kind of love for another person. I’ve always been sappy like that. I waited my whole life to find the person I’m meant to be with, and although I’ve found him, I still get mushy inside when I hear love songs or see romantic movies. I appreciate more than Shane knows how fortunate we both are for what we have.

I digress. After watching the movie again, and deciding that I had to own the song, I found it on iTunes and a-downloadin’ I went. I’ve listened to the song sufficiently now to have gotten it out of my system. I feel better now.

...until the next song comes along; and one always does.