IT'S 2025: MOCK POWER!

So, if you "read me" you might know I'm into signs and symbols and metaphors and synchronicity and harbingers and portents and all that stuff.  Recently, I've gotten into "signs" for the New Year, as I can remember to, much better now; as the years seem to come faster and faster.  But that's just life.  Life has it's happinesses and it's sadnesses.  And it didn't take long to come across the first sadness; within the first few hours of the first day of the New Year.  The tragedy in New Orleans.  I can't not address it.  And I truly pray that that is not a harbinger for the days to come.  But we must acknowledge it and hope that the fellow humans we lost--that their suffering was at the very least, brief.  And as you may have also noticed that lately I'm getting into "GIF"s (hey, better late than never); let's light a GIF candle for those who perished.  And as New Orleans and Bourbon Street are associated with Mardi Gras and that is associated with the Virgin Mary, how about a memorial candle?

So, nowadays, on the first of the New Year, I notice things.  Like birds and songs and sometimes songbirds.  This year, though, I'm going to do this in groups of 3.  That's a great, magic number.  So the first bird I saw was a downey woodpecker.  And I heard a blackcapped chickadee and finally, saw a mockingbird:

The mockingbird (far right) is about the size of a robin.  The chickadee in the middle is about the size of a sparrow and the downey woodpecker would be slightly larger than the chickadee.  Now, I'm sure that if I do some research on these birds, each of them will be fraught with meaning.  And I will do that later; but in this case, I just want to talk about the mockingbird, who can also be seen in the GIF at the top of the blog.  The mockingbird is known for two things, I think.  It's fierce protectiveness and it's amazing song.  And I will get into that.  But speaking of song...
I usually listen to a song on New Year's Day in the car.  That is, I snap on the radio and hit buttons until I hear a song and then that song will be a message about the coming year.  This year I did it in the wee hours of the morning and used a Random Song Generator on the computer.  And the first song that hit was The Bellamy Brothers "Let Your Love Flow," from 1976.  I was delighted; and I'll tell you why, after we all listen!

The other two songs are as follows; and I cheated a little.  The next two are legit rando/Uni songs, from the only two top 40 radio stations in the Roanoke area.  They are, as follows, in the order heard:

And then:

Now, "Time After Time" I think doesn't need an explanation, as to it's import.  "Hurts So Good," has quite a bit of significance to me.  When I wrote my first book, it was set in 1983--the summer, specifically--so I tried to be careful that every pop-culture reference was temporally correct.  That is, if say a song had come out in September of '83, I couldn't use it.  There's a scene in the book based on a real experience I had when I went to a "Girls Night" at a Boston gay bar, with two ladies I barely knew.  Mr. Mellencamp's song, "Crumblin' Down" came on the car radio and I recalled discussing it.  Well, in the book, I couldn't use that song because it was released in October of that year.  So, I went with "Hurts So Good," instead.  Anachronisms really bug me.  And today, I used the random generator until I found a song I loved.  It too was from the 80's.  So, bonus song for 2025?  What does it mean???

So, I keep getting commecials in front of these videos and Dr. Drew Pinsky is constantly popping up and spitting out food.  So, when did he become a douche-bro?  I used to listen to him when he was just a voice on "Loveline."  Life is odd, isn't it?
Now, the portent of the Bellamy Brothers is thus.  That song (they were kind of "one-hit-wonders") was used in the movie Little Darlings. Now, that movie is decidedly on the prurient and crude side.  However, in my humble opinion, I think it has the best performances of teens in a teen movie in The History of Teen Movies.  Maybe because they were all clearly real teens.  Kritsy McNichol, I think, gave a truly great performance in it.  Let's take a look!

"Now, you may be asking yourself: "Gee, is Christopher Reidy obsessed with teens?  Does he have a problem?"  Well, my first two books are about teenagers, so obviously, the subject is front of mind.  And I've been writing about "The B**t P**k" quite a lot lately; and we know that was full up with teens; or, rather, twenty year-olds who played teens.  A lot.  And how weird is that?  But basically, my teen experiences were as intense as anyone's I suppose; and they still resonate with me as though they happened yesterday.  Maybe that makes me weird.  But personally, I don't see it as a problem.  I try not to live in the past, but the past happened.  I don't understand people who try to dismiss it.  And look what happens so often, when we do.
But speaking of John Mellencamp-Cougar etc.  Let's watch the "Crumblin' Down" video (I managed to get a whole thing about this song in my second book!),  I think this is the archetypal moment of "Dance Like No One Is Watching."

Well, I guess that's it.
One last thing.  I want to look up the symbolic meaning of the mockingbird.  Please hold...

Well, the first three descriptors for the mockingbird that popped up were: INNOCENCE, BEAUTY AND HARMLESSNESS.
The mockingbird hardly seems "innocent."  They are firece and agressive.  But perhaps they are protecting some basic truths.  And beauty is true.  They will often sing for no other reason than for singing's sake.  For the beauty of it.  They are the one bird that will sing in the dead of night.  Have you heard that?  It's spooky.  It has a kind of terrifying beauty.  And I don't think science really has a good explanation for it.
"Harmlessness."  That's an interesting word.  I think bravery should be one too.  I mean, that mockingbird at the top is standing its ground with a hawk that is like ten times bigger than it is.  It won't back down, either.  It's speaking truth to power, even though that "power" seems immovable.  And interestingly, I think that one thing the past has shown us, is that power is most decidedly not immovable.  In time.  Time after time.  In time it all comes crumblin' down, doesn't it?
Happy 2025.  Stay safe out there.

CFR   1/6/25