The second tier

The second tier of musical favorites is, of course, much larger than my first tier, which numbers only four songs. The second tier can include anything that makes me happy, that I want to sing, or at least whistle, along with or when I'm not near a radio. It's anything that makes playing the radio worth the effort, waiting through poor to mediocre music and a half-dozen commercials to hear something worthwhile. It's also anything that evokes a warm memory.

The first tier of music is anything that transports me, spiritually, transcendingly (or makes me "gooshy" as I said yesterday). The second tier is anything that improves my mood. The first tier are those songs that are so good I want to know all the words so I can sing along or sing them in my head at any time and place. That's true of all four of the titles listed yesterday; when I purposed to memorize the words to "The One You Love," I knew I had found another all-time favorite.

I've mentioned a few of the second-tier favorites previously: "What A Feeling," "Tammy" (which I also memorized, but primarily to sing to my girlfriend rather than for myself), and others: the whole Saturday Night Fever and Michael Jackson's Thriller albums. But it would also include most of what I've heard by the Platters, Brenda Lee, Connie Francis, Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, the Backstreet Boys, Helen Reddy, Dione Warwick, Anne Murray, Johnny Mathis, Gladys Knight; more singles like "Look What You've Done To Me" by Boz Scaggs (from Urban Cowboy), "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green, and hundreds of others.

Still to be considered: changing tastes; others' favorites that don't make the grade in my "system," and "it's radio, Dadio."

The Expensive Battery

An angry motorist went back to a garage where he'd purchased an expensive battery for his car six months earlier. "Listen," the motorist grumbled to the owner of the garage, "when I bought that battery you said it would be the last battery my car would ever need. It died after only six months!"

"Sorry," apologized the garage owner. "I didn't think your car would last that long."

Prayer

Lord help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that you and I together can't handle.