What does it matter?

I’ve been listening to Mozart for the past month, because I read somewhere that Mozart increases brain activity and creativity. I’m afraid a solid month of Mozart may have burned my brain to ashes. Yesterday, I wanted to listen to something different, so I grabbed a handful of CDs from the entertainment center and brought them to work.

Among those in the handful were two Dan Fogelberg CDs, “The Wild Places” and “River of Souls.” Dan Fogelberg’s music will forever resonate in my soul. I can’t remember when I first started buying his albums, but it was back in the vinyl days - and then I bought them all over again when CDs made the scene. Dan died of prostate cancer on December 16, 2007, so listening to his music is bittersweet for me. I decided to go on-line and read a little more about him and stumbled across a blog written by one of the guys he grew up with, in Peoria, Illinois. It was interesting, reading about Dan’s rise to fame. The stories weren’t all that different from any other successful musician - being in the right place at the right time, the parties, the fame, the fortune, the heartbreak. But Dan spoke to me (and many others, I’m sure) through his lyrics.

Anyway, after I’d listened to those albums and read more about Dan on the internet, I found myself asking those hard questions I always seem to end up asking myself. What mark am I going to leave on this world? Do I even matter? Why am I even here? Those with children have already left their legacy. My husband is a well-known artist. What do I have to show for myself? I’m over 50 years old and what do I have to show for it? I no longer have the energy and pluck of youth to sustain a headlong rush to fame or claw my way into a new profession. And so I headed down my well-worn path to the Pit of Despair.

Teetering on the brink of that pit, a little voice in my head said, “Lisa, if there is even one person in this world that you have touched, you matter.”

I don’t know exactly where that little voice came from, but it stopped my headlong rush into self-deprecation and depression.

When you think about that little statement, it’s true for everyone. Everyone matters. Everything you do matters - from the phone call to check up on a friend, to smiling at someone on the street. From the harsh words you exchange with someone, to the later exchange of hugs. Everything matters. We’re all connected.

Just think of it: I never met Dan Fogelberg, yet he touched me on a fundamental level with his music.

Just think of who you could be influencing even now, with just a smile.