A Love/Hate Relationship

Our sons will probably guess where this is going as soon as they see the name Mark Schultz written here. Love them for the way they love me...

Music stirs us, and those emotions and tastes are as varied as we are. Have you ever had someone say, "You should hear this song! You'll love it.", yet when you listen to it, you're left flat? Variety is the spice of life, right?

Mark Schultz is a singer-songwriter who absolutely slays me. To say I love his work would be the truth - and a lie, because, most of the time, his songs send my spiraling into full-blown, sobbing, tears. How can I love someone's work when it throws me into sadness and sorrow? Perhaps anyone who can move me so strongly deserves to be appreciated.

It all started with a song called He's My Son. It was particularly poignant as it came during a time we watched our friend Jenny lose her son to leukemia. That was accompanied by a song called When You Come Home. I've never made it through either of those songs without crying.

I can't make it through the first line of Letters from War. "She walked to the mailbox... On that bright summers day"  Ask anyone who's ever been around me when that song starts... I KNOW what's coming, and I still start crying. It sounds silly, because, as I said, I know what's coming, and I still can't help it. (This, Jared & Jordan, would be the appropriate place for one of you to say, "Oh, Peter, I worried about you so." But that's another story.)

Today, while reading the blog Aaron in Africa, I was introduced to another Mark Schultz song that, apparently, I can't make it through either. Yay. Darn him! This one's called Closer to You, and, if I add it to the other songs I want at my funeral, it'll be the longest funeral on record. So, for those of you who love me, I'll not add it and hope that our sons, out of respect for me and all of you, don't do as I've asked and just pick a song that would be special to them. Not that I'm dying, mind you. I just have a tendency to fall in love with a LOT of music. Michael, Jared, and Jordan graciously put up with that in me. I love my guys. When was the last time I said that?

If you've not heard Mark Schultz before, search him out. You'll thank me or hate me, but either way you'll be moved - probably to tears.