Better Days

Author: Tony Trott

As we continue to deal with this pandemic, we probably are aware of one of the main issues facing most people, however, we can’t always see everything. And so engaging with people may require us to use a bit of tact. Now, I’m not a professional, so I can’t tell you how you should do that, I can only tell you what works for me and maybe you can adapt that to your situations.

The main thing I try to do is to keep myself and my questions/interactions upbeat. By upbeat, I don’t mean all happy and smiley, you can be upbeat/positive about things and situations even if they are extremely upsetting. I learned about that the hard way when Sheri was in the ICU down in Atlanta about 11 years ago.

For me, at the time, music was very important and a big part of my life. And ever since elementary school I had been a Bruce Springsteen fan so it’s not surprising that I turned to Bruce and his lyrics to help me get through tough times. I was never a huge fan of his Lucky Town album (1992), but for some reason, the song Better Days from that album started running through my head constantly and I really can’t believe how much it picked me up when I was down. The lyrics may not be the most uplifting of all time or anything like that, but just the chorus lines about “better days shining through” and “better days with a girl like you” definitely picked me up and made me look forward to the future.

I still think about those lyrics today, and plan to for quite a while. Music is extremely powerful and can help with almost any situation. There are so many genres, styles, and types, I’m sure you can find one that works for you. For me it was a Bruce song, but it may certainly be different for you.