It came from a song

We can draw all sorts of inspiration from all sorts of places. It doesn’t really matter where we get our inspiration, but what we do with it, how it shapes our thinking and actions, that’s what’s important.

Last week, I published a post called “The three faces of Me”, which was part of my ongoing series of posts about my new life. It was also about all the things that made me into the Me I am today, including what I’m dealing with. There’s nothing unique about this sort of thinking or way of describing one’s own development, but it was actually inspired by a pop song.

The truth is, I’ve been thinking a lot about “old me” in recent months specifically because of a song by 5 Seconds of Summer called, appropriately, “Old Me”, which I included in a June Weekend Diversion post about the band (the link goes directly to my discussion of the song, along with the lyric video of it, or LISTEN on Spotify). I liked both the song and, as I said in my post, “I really liked the whole concept of ‘shout out to the old me’ theme.” It struck a chord, so to speak, with me and made me think about how “old me” influenced who I became, just like in the song.

I’ve been influenced by pop music before, usually songs that resonate with me emotionally. While “Old Me” did that, it was actually a minor part of it. Instead, thinking about how life shapes us became the focus for me, and the main reason I liked that song so much.

I’m keenly aware that there are people who would smirk at the very suggestion that a pop song could be inspiring in any way, which says more about them, I think, than maybe they intend. People get inspiration from all sorts of things—paintings, movies, books, the list is endless. I don’t think that any of us has the right to judge where other people get inspiration. Consider it another extension to Arthur's Law.

In any case, the song didn’t exactly lead to a life-changing realisation or anything; as I said, there’s nothing unique about thinking about the influence of “old me”. Instead, the song merely inspired me to think more deeply about how my own life was shaped by the “Me” from various stages of my life—and, in fact, that there even were distinct stages.

We can draw all sorts of inspiration from all sorts of places. Even though it doesn’t really matter where we get our inspiration, there are people who will miss it for themselves, or dismiss it for others, because of the source. That’s a pity. We all should take inspiration wherever we find it. Even if it’s a pop song. What we do with that inspiration is what’s important.