USEFUL NOISE WHEN SKIP A ROPE IS THE SOUND OF COMFORT

The sound of useful noise is a comfort. Some find it in a guitar, others in a piano, still more in the song they sing in the shower.

No one sings Skip A Rope for comfort. It’s a mean song that’s beginning to sound like a new national anthem. Hit the link to hear it. The lyrics are below for a sing-a-long.

It starts out with, “Listen to the children while they play. Now ain’t it kinda funny what the children say.”

Some useful noise comes out of a big wooden guitar laying on a blue velvet couch. What else could it be given the conditions? Anything on a blue velvet couch is useful.

Taylor Swift singing As Tears Go By with the Stones is an unexpected comfort.

All I hear is the sound
Of rain falling on the ground
I sit and watch
As tears go by

Hearing NBA coach Doc Rivers talk made me watch my tears go by. It struck a nerve I keep a eye on. Hit the Doc link if you haven’t heard it.

Oh, listen to the children while they play
Now ain’t it kinda funny what the children say
Skip a rope

Daddy hates mommy, mommy hates dad
Last night you should’ve heard the big fight they had
It gave little sister another bad dream
She woke us all up with a terrible scream.

The useful noise today is the sound of reckoning. The terrible screams are coming from communities ignored for too long. Their voices are being heard now that video evidence shows why they’ve been screaming.

Gun violence is a sound no one wants to hear, especially around children. Then a seventeen year old kid hears a call to action. He’s locked and loaded.

Four years ago the kid was thirteen. In his teen awakening, what did he focus on? What were his parents focused on? Skip A Rope could be a clue.

Cheat on your taxes, don’t be a fool
Now what was that they said about the golden rule
Never mind the rule just play to win
And hate your neighbor for the shade of his skin.

When my kids were young and looked to their old man for answers, we watched a football game on television. One of them asked which guys I liked better, the dark guys or the white guys.

I listened to my children while they played and saw a moment to impact their young selves. In the middle of my gentle explanation of race relations, fairness, and equality under the United States Constitution, of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they interrupted.

“Dad, we’re asking which team you like, the dark jerseys or the white jerseys.”

My parenting moment came with a U-turn, but it didn’t diminish the message. From little boys listening to their over-explaining dad, to grown men who enjoy raking me over the coals, they’ve made me more than proud.

Yes, I’ve harped on them about important things, unimportant things, and everything in between. And they took it like I hoped they would. If they tuned out, they kept the important parts, the fairness, the equality, the justice. Having a helicopter momma helped.

Stab ’em in the back that’s the name of the game
And mommy and daddy are who’s to blame

Listen to the children while they play
Now it’s not very funny what the children say

Portland took to the streets, is still taking to the streets, in Black Lives Matter protests. Eventually the Wall Of Moms and Wall Of Dads showed up. They heard what the children say, saw the response, and raised their voices.

Voting is the voice of the American people. Some of those voices joined to bring Mr. Trump to the White House.

Our useful voices need to join in showing him the door. In the words of a good Boy Scout: Be Prepared To Vote.

On one hand we have the consummate showman president who knows how to sell like his very life depended on it; on the other is a career grinder ready for his moment of American greatness.

Vote like it matters what the children say. Be their useful noise.