A few days ago, I shared that I was starting a music challenge, preferably country and gospel. I didn’t pick the genres because those are the only genres that matter, but because they are the ones I relate to most easily. However, in the few days of the challenge I have even found myself picking songs that are not in those genres.
I’ve been sharing on my WhatsApp story and writing in my notebook the songs that come to mind as I get each day’s prompt.
Yesterday’s prompt was a song with meaningful lyrics.
I don’t know… Maybe it is because of the season I am in, or probably because of how much I have enjoyed this song for over a year now, but I went with This Is Me… performed by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble.
Someone came into my messages and suggested that Unthinkable by Alicia Keys would have been a better option.
My response was simple: For you.
And that was it.
We throw the word better around so casually, but do we ever stop to ask, better than what?
Better is relative and so very contextual. What is better for one person may not be what another person needs.
Sometimes, it even depends on the season a person is in, what they need at that particular moment, what they are trying to understand, or even what a song helps them feel.
A song may be brilliant in the techniques used, beautifully written, and deeply meaningful, but that doesn’t automatically make it the song someone else needs to hear.
Often for me, the song that speaks to me is the one that finds me where I am. One that puts words to something I have struggled to explain, and reminds me of something I need to remember, or simply makes me feel understood.
Maybe, just maybe, we need to be more careful about how we use the word better. Better for whom? Better for what purpose? Better in whose circumstances?… not everything needs to be a competition, and not every preference needs to be corrected.
It really is just a matter of perspective.
At the risk of contracting myself, I will be writing a part two to this
