the little things

After I sent the kids to get their PJ's on for the night they came into my room to say good night. Baby D says,

"Dad, I want to hear that song that you were singing today. It's stuck in my head."

It's an established fact in my house that music is a major part of my life. Almost every time period in my life has been accompanied by a soundtrack of sorts. At the age of 5 I was listening to the Temptations, Jerry Butler, and Bill Withers. My older sister says I was an old man by 7. I listened to ABC, Kwame, Hammer, and all the rest, but something about that old soul music was a part of my soul. I inherited that love from my dad and his old school music collection. We would sit in the basement listening to old records. I saw the way he felt the music and I wanted to understand. When things were going wrong, as they often did, he would throw on something sad. I would dribble the ball around the basement singing along to songs that none of my friends knew about. Eventually I grew to love it on my own level, and my understanding of my dad's music grows with each day that I live.

As I type this blog, Frankie Beverly is in the background singing about being back in stride. Whether it's the Wu-Tang Clan, Jodeci, Coldplay, or BB King, there's always a song in my head and in my heart. It seems as though I've managed to pass this love on to my kids. When I get new CD's they are eager to hear what they're all about, and they have fallen in love with some of my favorite stuff.

So Baby D wants to hear the song of the day. She's usually the one that's brave enough to make requests at bedtime...more about that later. I fire up my ipod for the song of the day, which just happens to have significant meaning to me. As the song is playing, Kenzer asks,

"Daddy, is this your favorite song?"
"Actually, it is" I respond.
"But it will change eventually. Your favorite song changes depending on where you are in your life" Logan says, quoting me directly from a conversation we had earlier this week.
"That's right. It will probably change soon, but for now this is number one."

They all look pleased.

Legacy is a powerful thing. I always say that you never know what your kids are going to remember. You cannot predict what they will take with them, what they will forget, or what they will pass on. It's an awesome thing to give them something that my dad gave me: a love for music. That love for music is also something that links us. It gives us something to talk about and it gives me another way to let them know who I am. As parents sometimes we spend so much time teaching, scolding, praising, feeding, and clothing our kids that we forget to show them who we are. Of all the directives I've given them today, (at least 100) the one thing they will actually remember is a song. With all that we work so hard to make sure they remember, sometimes it's the little things that never die.