Everybody sings. Not everybody sounds great when they do it – maybe that can be taught or realized, maybe not. Everyone can do it though. And these days it seems like everyone does. But why? Why do you sing?
For the narcissist, there are certain, special singers – the chosen ones – that get selected for stardom. Singing can be like buying a lottery ticket. For the soul searcher, the thinker, the worrier – singing provides relief, a sense of calm. It de-fogs the window so we can look out and see the world more clearly. For the attention seekers, it’s a fairly effective way of seeking attention. For the altruists, the aim is to help people, calm them down, make them feel understood, less worthless, less alone. Then comes the truthful bit. We’re all narcissists. We’re all worriers. We all want to be noticed. We all want to make a difference in people’s lives. We’re all a lot of things.
Labels can be useful, whether it’s for food, for music, for places, for names, for preferences, etc. But they should not be taken as anything more than a single colour on a full palette of possibilities. We all eat, shit, and sleep, but that does not make us all the same. And thank goodness for that.
We are so many things. So why do we sing? Why do you sing? How does it make you feel? On a scale of happy to sad, shy to confident, angry to hysterical, and a dozen other feelings – many of which we still don’t quite know how to label. Singing feels great, surely? Maybe not for everyone. Maybe it’s become a must, a mislaid career path, a wrong turn that can’t be reversed. Maybe the music is wrong. So for the lucky ones, the ones who don’t have to sing, the ones who choose to – to themselves, to their loved ones, to the world – surely singing simply feels great? It’s one of the only things in life that we can do, in any situation, without any tools, without any preparation, without any permission, without any money, without any direction. It’s ours, and we can share it. And people like it when we share it. Even if it sounds terrible. We make each other smile. We make ourselves smile.
When you’re feeling crappy, they say you should smile – get those good hormones flying through your system, trick your mind into being joyful. Even better than that – try singing. It’s hard to be truly angry when you’re singing, it might even be impossible. Singing is one of the weirdest things we can do, as humans – as intelligent, multi-functional, complex, ambitious, considerate, humans. But, the birds have been doing it, for even longer than we have. And they can fly. They see everything. They don’t let fear hold them back. They don’t keep quiet. They let it all out. We should let it all out too.
Do you sing? If not – I don’t want to know why not. I dare you to try though. Sing something ridiculous. Sing the last thing you said. Sing the weather forecast. Sing the reasons you’re procrastinating right now. Sing the thing that pissed you off this morning. Sing the thing you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet. Sing your Facebook feed.
That’ll do it.
