You can give your life
You can lose your soul
You can bang your head or you can drown in a hole
Nothing lasts forever, but, you can try
Look around you,
Everyone you see, everyone you know is gonna (Shine) Shine
If you bear with me, there is a connection between today’s Song for Sunday and the strengths-based focus of the weekend reading.
A few years ago I heard an interview with Vanessa Amorosi in which she spoke about Shine. It was written for an old school friend who committed suicide and the original lyrics were “Everyone you see, everyone you know is gonna die.” Mark Holden (another Australian singer/songwriter) suggested they change “die” to “shine” and in doing helped create a very different song. Amorosi is convinced it created a much better song, and the success of the song suggests she is right.
I probably don’t need to labour the connection with a strengths-based approach: by shifting the focus, the song changed from a bleak, depressing song to a positive, uplifting anthem that Amorosi performed at the opening of the 2000 Paralympics.
If you liked this post please follow my blog (top right-hand corner of the blog), and you might like to watch some previous songs for Sunday:
Sustaining Community 