ONE Friday night, while stuck in traffic at the Rotonda in Cagayan de Oro, my Last Song Syndrome (LSS) was Harry Styles’ “As It Was.”
Or should that be how to face the traffic as it is.
After watching “The Little Mermaid” in May, my LSS was “Up where they walk, up where they run/Up where they stay all day in the sun/Wanderin’ free, wish I could be/Part of that world.”
A part of whose world? The US? Europe? Japan? Anywhere but here?
But now that I’ve stopped listening to music, my LSS is Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.” Actually, more like the sound of the birds’ chirping outside the window. The sound of my tummy while in its fasting window. The sound of the keyboard as I type this column. The sounds of the air conditioner, the electric fan, the mosquito killer when it finally traps a mosquito—no, it doesn’t burp.
Preferring to listen to these sounds instead of music could be one sure sign I’m getting older. Since I’m not a deer whose antlers may reveal its age, let’s find other ways to see if a woman of a certain age has already reached that certain age. First, she has no more patience for toxic people. Second, she reacts with peace or with venom—take your pick. Third, she realizes that the “Small Circle, Small Circle, Big Circle” song refers to her relationships with other people—the smaller the circle, the better.
And that’s another LSS—“Small circle, small circle, big circle/Small circle, small circle, big circle/Mama’s ear, papa’s ear and a big big smile/Six times six, six times six, thirty-six/Six times six, six times six, like a magic pig!” Or a bear, a koala, whatever comes to mind. This song has several versions, by the way, but of course, I prefer the magic pig. Sing this while drawing those circles until whatever is complete.
When I was still listening to electronic dance music, my LSS was, hmmm, none. How to remember any of those songs? Since EDM is best taken with tequila, or at least with SML Apple, listening to it while working from home is simply not the same as dancing to it while bar-hopping. It’s like comparing YouTube videos with live concerts—in other words, there is no comparison.
By the way, when it comes to YouTube, the multi-billion views a video has are not enough assurance that you’ll like it. To each his own as usual.
Sometimes what resonates is not the LSS but the LLS—the Last Line Syndrome. I recently had with Jennifer Weiner’s “Hungry Heart” where she wrote, “…just as there are people inclined toward melancholy and depression, there are those more outfitted for pleasure and joy—people who look at most conflicts or arguments or differences of opinion and decide not worth it.”
And there’s also what I call the first letter syndrome, or it could be the second letter, third letter, etc. when a Wordle five-letter word has many possibilities. For example, the correct guess is “power.” But there you are trying “tower,” “cower,” “lower,” “mower,” “rower,” with “sower” as your sixth and last chance. That’s an X/6 for you. Tsk tsk. Better luck next time.
