I can't really account for it, but I feel particularly creative these past several weeks. The summer rejuvenates me, I do know that. Perhaps that's what it is. But I think it's more.

I am so freakin' excited about the Good-Wil Initiative! I know it reads like false enthusiasm, possibly. But there's a really good reason why it excites me. It's the first time that a mechanism has ever existed for me that actually has the capability to render true my far-flung and often idealistic ideas about how to make things better in the world.

It was only a year ago that the concept of the Initiative was even conceived. Until then, I just worked haphazardly trying this, trying that, learning a lot, but I know I was paddling upstream most of the time.

But once the Good-Wil Initiative began, every idea of mine suddenly had a place; even, and perhaps especially, my musical ones.

I have been toying with the idea of singing the Johnny Paycheck song "Take This Job and Shove It." I can't say for sure what made the refrain stick in my head one day, but it seemed like a fun idea.

It's probably worth it to mention that I don't start singing a song lightly. The words of a song must reflect my own feelings. It's true that I occasionally sing old classics that are more traditional than lyric driven; those don't seem to bother me to sing. I don't really feel like I'm trying to represent myself when I sing those.

But if I'm going to sing an autobiographical song like "Take This Job and Shove It" it's gotta come from somewhere in your own experience or else it's just karaoke.

The original lyrics of the song speak of a man whose woman has left him and now he's telling his boss to shove it, too. That's not really my direct experience, but I understand the frustration sure enough. In my version, I have retained the original frustration, but changed the story to reflect my own experience. I have also revised parts of the melody and changed the style from the original country western to... something I don't know what just yet. Time will tell once the band get working on it.

These are my own version of the lyrics:

Take this job and shove it. I ain't working here no more.
My courage left and took all the reasons I was working for.
So, you better not try to stand in my way as I'm a walking out the door.
I'm gonna take this job and shove it for I ain't working here no more.

Ive been beatin this here horse for more than fifteen years.
All this time I watched my courage drowning in a pool of fears.
And I've seen a lot of good folk die who had their bills to pay.
I'd have given the shirt right off of my back if I just had the nerve to say:

Take this job and shove it. I ain't working here no more.
My courage left and took all the reasons I was working for.
So, you better not try to stand in my way as I'm a walking out the door.
I'm gonna take this job and shove it for I ain't working here no more.

Doing things that I can instead of things I want.
Living life a working hell; a shingle that I flaunt.
One of these days I'm gonna blow my top and though I'm a grateful man,
I will sing my song at the top of my lungs until my lesson is gone and spent.

Instrumental

Take this job and shove it. I ain't working here no more.
My courage left and took all the reasons I was working for.
So, you better not try to stand in my way as I'm a walking out the door.
I'm gonna take this job and shove it for I ain't working here no more.

You gotta take your job and love it.
And I won't leave home no more.


Now this to me says it all about where I am today, right this minute. I've been working all this time and I want to stop doing that. "Working," to me, is doing anything that you don't completely love for an occupation. "Working" is passionless and is nothing more than a means to an end. I want to love my occupation so much that it doesn't feel like work. It want to make agreat effort, but definitely not work. Work is too much work.