Cross Country
August 27, 1999
5:11 a.m.
I got into my car in Nashville and slammed the door. I had been in a meeting of a cross section of the company's IT people, and was ready to head home--hopefully in time to make it to Brigid's school thing. I flipped on the radio and searched for a station. Being Nashville, it found a country station. A female singer was on. Now, I'm not the world's greatest country music fan. I do listen to it occasionally, and I like some. Being in Nashville, I figured I would listen for a bit. So I tooled out of the parking lot, and left the dial where it was. Another female country singer sang the next song. I clicked the station. Shania Twain. After that one, I clicked the search. Faith Hill. So I kept driving through Nashville, listening to country song after country song, hitting ths scan buttons and arriving at female country music stars. By the time I left Nashville, it was starting to get eerie. I stopped to get gas just shy of the Kentucky border. When I got back into the car Pam Tillis was playing. I think it was Pam Tillis. Maybe it was Lila McCann, or maybe it was Deanna Carter. Now it was getting to be a challenge. How far north could I get before I couldn't find a female country singer on the radio? The miles ran past. Every time a song ended, I hit the search scanner. More Shania, Trisha Yearwood, more Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, Shelly Austin, Trisha, Shania, Deanna Carter, Faith, Shania, Shania, Trisha, Dixie Chicks, Kathy Matea, Dixie Chicks, Shania, Shedaisey, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lorrie Morgan. I'm sure I've missed some. Every time a male singer came on, I scanned. And, not counting three pauses, one for Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll", one for the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil," and one for Tommy James and the Shondells' "Crimson and Clover" (hey, I couldn't help it), I made it past Loiusville accompanied only by female country singers. Incredibly, no Reba McIntiyre. No Tanya Tucker. I'm not sure what this says. Maybe it says I'm a very strange person--but then, you already knew that. But I think it says something else, too, something about how the world has changed in the past twenty or thirty years. Think about it. Look around you. We get caught up in technology. It's the first thing that we think of when we speak of changes. But there are larger changes than those right under our noses. Information brings us bad news more rapidly and broadly than we've ever been able to access it. But the good news still needs to be observed. So take your time. Look. I think it's a great sign that female voices are on the radio waves from Nashville to Louisville. I could go into more signs. More positives of how the world is progressing in its interaction. But it's no good if I point them out. I want you to look for yourself. So go out there today and find something positive, okay? And if you have a site, write about it there. If you don't pass it along to me. Maybe I'll post it someplace here. In the meantime I'm listening to Sara McLachlan this morning.   Yes, I was traveling the past couple days. Between travel, meetings, and a dinner session, I did manage to make a second pass through "Separated by Sky," which I'll now consider "done" until I hear back fro a reader or two. I've decided I'm going to do another pass at "the Taranth Stone," so, that should probably take up the rest of the morning, and into Saturday. Not planning on any major structural changes. Assuming I can finish that by Monday or so, I'm bang on the plan I made a month ago or so. Have a great day.  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
|
"When you can't find a friend, you've still got the radio." Nanci Griffith |
BACK TO 
|