A side note before getting to this week’s piece from the Bullpen … special thanks to my sister, Sandy, and brother, Tom, for Facebook sharing a couple memories of our growing up which I included in last week’s narrative. The piece was about someone very special to our family who recently passed away, and their memories were definitely a big piece of last week’s story. Thanks guys!

Now, on to today …

In 2013, Disney came out with a new movie, which, like most if not all Disney movies, was extremely popular, evidenced by the number of costumes from the film sold at Halloween time, and the singing of the main song that came from the movie. The movie was “Frozen,” and the title of that song was “Let it Go.”

If you walked anywhere near little kids, especially little girls, after they saw the movie, you would probably have heard them singing that song, with the same passion and emotion as was personified by Idina Menzel in the movie, not caring how loud or, every-so-often, off key, they might have been in their rendition.

As cute as the song was, though I never saw the movie, after a while it kind of grated at me, and the cuteness kind of wore off. It was also a song that I even heard played during baseball competitions over the PA system, which kind of hit me like fingernails across a blackboard. I decided that whenever I heard the song played, I would “let it go,” by turning the station or channel.

Recently, while driving around taking care of some errands, I had my satellite radio set to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville station, as I most often do, and there was a newer release by the Zac Brown Band being played. Glancing at the radio screen, I caught the title of this new release, and rolled my eyes as I read it to be, “Let it Go.”

I decided not to turn the station as it wasn’t a remake of the Disney movie song, and it had a pretty good sound, but what caught my attention the most were some of the words included in the lyrics. They sounded like a great life lesson (one familiar from my past) that could have been, and still can be, helpful to everyone somewhere, at some point in all of our lives. The pre-opening to the refrain sang:

“And it didn’t take too long to find the

truth inside that bottle

Cast a-sea so long ago was a message

from my father.”

And the refrain sang:

“You keep your heart above your head

and your eyes wide open

So this world can’t find a way

to leave you cold

And know you’re not the only

ship out on the ocean

Save your strength for things

that you can change

Forgive the ones you can’t

You gotta let ’em go”

Another line later in the song read:

“Like a sweet sunset in Georgia let it go

And like the fear that grabs ahold ya let it go

Let it go

Let it go”

We’ve all gotten, and remembered, words of wisdom from our parents and/or grandparents that have helped us along our ways in life. Maybe we got that advice when we were teenagers and really didn’t want that advice, or didn’t think our parents “understood” us then, or that they couldn’t “understand” us because of their age or their own generational beliefs, and we tossed the advice in our mental “circular files,” but at some point later on in our lives, that advice seemed to find its way back to our minds and seems to be applicable in situations here and/or there.

I know me, I wanted to believe in my mind that I didn’t need my dad’s advice, because I was always smarter than he’d ever be and I knew best. The only thing that I know best now is that my father was more of a genius than Einstein, da Vinci, Tesla, Newton, Michelangelo, Hawking, Archimedes, Buffet (Warren, not Jimmy), Aristotle, Bohr and Plato combined, and his advice was, and still is, spot on most of the time. Looking at the lyrics of the Zac Brown number, they were very similar to the advice my father gave us when we were young, and even as adults.

He wanted us to think with our minds, but also consider things with our hearts and make sure we stayed ahead of some things the world might throw at us as best we could. He warned us that some things would happen that were totally unexpected, but what was important would be how we reacted to them and dealt with them. He wanted us to know that we weren’t the only ones to whom things happened, and that we should expend our energies on things we could affect or change, and let go of the things that we could not. He advised us to not let fear dictate decisions or take over our life. Much of my dad’s advice seemed to return to me in the lyrics of this newly released song with the same title as that Disney tune from the movie “Frozen.”

I’m sure he never thought the advice he gave us when we were growing up would be part of the refrain of a song by a popular Country/Southern Rock style band two plus decades after he left this earth. Who of us knew that “crazy” music that our parents didn’t care for, and wish we’d turn down the volume to, would someday echo the same sage counsel passed along to us by them long after they gave it to us during our younger days?

Sound advice? Absolutely! Easy to do? Not so! It is very hard for many, (probably putting me at the top of the list) to “let it go.” When things happen, our emotions kick into gear and our “vision” becomes distorted. Our focus seems to immediately shift to the “what has happened,” and the “why it happened” before being able to shift our energy to moving forward to, “okay, how do we move on from here?” We need to let go of the “what” and “why,” and begin dealing with the “how” which can help the healing process begin more quickly and get us back in the flow more smoothly. We need to “Let it go.”

Again, it’s a hard thing to do but the longer we hang onto the “what” and “why” the longer it will take us to begin the “how” and put what may be troubling us behind us. All it takes is for us to follow the advice of our parents and the Zac Brown Band, and just “Let it Go!” Again, it’s easier said than done, but definitely very doable.