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rosanne cash

A Big Life

March 8, 2019 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

One of the things I find intriguing in life is fame. So many pursue it, so few catch it. Fewer still hold onto it for a lifetime.

Maybe I’m sensitive to this subject because I live in Washington, DC, a town filled with “formers”. Or maybe it’s because the coaching profession has a small but ardent crowd who are convinced that fame is the only litmus test for success.

I don’t know, but I’m trying to understand. What’s the difference between living a Big Life and living a Small Life?

On Friday night I watched a concert by someone who’s had fame – the big, glitzy, lifetime sort of fame so many seek – Rosanne Cash. Born the eldest child of legend Johnny Cash, her life has been full of both opportunities and gawkers.

When she began singing and writing songs in her teen years, she started getting acclaim herself. Forty-plus years later, she’s been nominated for 15 Grammys and remains a recording and touring artist. She’s a genius.

As I listened to her play the other night, it occurred to me that this was a woman who’d had hit after hit after hit in the 1980s. You couldn’t turn on the radio and not hear “Seven Year Ache” or “Never Be You” or “I Don’t Know Why You Don’t Want Me”. She released ground-breaking albums and collaborated with the biggest names in music.

Now, however, you’re not likely to hear her songs anywhere on the radio.

(And that’s not just because country music has a thing about women artists.)

I wondered about that. I wondered what that would feel like to not have your music on the radio.

I wondered how Rosanne feels about fame.

On Saturday morning, it hit me. I think she’s sort of transcended fame. I mean, she’s had it and I imagine there were parts which were nice, and she’s still famous to a degree, but what Rosanne Cash is here to do now is to express herself.

Regardless.

Because she has something to say.

There are things she needs to create.

And she’ll do it whether or not she’s on top of the charts, on the radio or filling football stadiums.

Expressing herself is enough. Creating is enough. Being in that artistic moment is enough.

Whatever comes after that is fine.

And so, I realize, it has to be for me. As ong as I’m expressing myself, committed to creating things that matter to me, being the kind of person I aim to be – then life will be right-sized.

Fame, no fame. Big, small. Won’t matter. What will matter is the way in which I say – the way in which you say – what we’re here to say in the time we have left.

It’s really all that matters.

 

(photo courtesy: RosanneCash.com)

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Happier Living, Random Thoughts Tagged With: commitment, creating, fame, happiness, living a life that matters, rosanne cash, work that matters

The Best Books of 2010

December 5, 2010 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

Now, the Top 10 Books Of The Year. According to me.  🙂

I’ve been reading like a maniac in 2010, and – just in time for holiday gift giving (ahem) – let me share with you the ten fiction books that I truly enjoyed.  In order.

#1 – The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer.  It’s a beautiful coming of age story set in Europe before WWII – a young Hungarian Jew wins a scholarship to Paris, falls in love, and then the war comes.  Truly, it’s about the indomitable human spirit, and the meaning of love.

#2 – Father of the Rain by Lily King. What it’s like to have a difficult, manipulative father… who you love anyway.  I’ve not met Lily King, but if I did I’d bow to her.  This girl can write.

#3 – Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann.  One day, a Frenchman threw a cable between the Twin Towers and walked across. The impact of that moment on New Yorkers.  Brilliant.

#4 – The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville.  In 1788, the First Fleet sailed to Australia.  This fictional retelling of the experience of William Dawes, an Englishman that fell in love with the bush, brings history alive.

#5 – The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.  Loved it.  Gripping. Compelling.  Fascinating.  Brutal.  LOVE Lisabeth Salander.

#6 – The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson.  Moodier, but I loved this one, too.

#7 – The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson.  Had to see the trilogy through, and glad I did.  Of course, there’s an unpublished manuscript on the late Larsson’s laptop…

#8 – The Black Cat by Martha Grimes.  I love Grimes’ writing.  If you like British mysteries in the tradition of Christie and Sayers, you will adore this book and the brooding hero, Richard Jury.

#9 – Night Soldiers by Alan Furst.  Kristo is born in Bulgaria, gets recruited by the Soviet espionage establishment, goes undercover in Spain, drifts to Paris, and ends up working for the American OSS.  Set in the run-up to WWII, it’s a compelling and intriguing look at intrigue.

#10 – Composed by Rosanne Cash (OK, it’s not fiction but it’s gorgeous and well-written and amazing anyway).  Her story of her life as a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who just happened to have a famous father Johnny Cash and a famous stepmother, June Carter Cash, and a dear mother, Vivian Liberto. The book is not all about family – it’s about growing up and living life and making choices – but her perspective on her parents is smart and perceptive.  Great book.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention another important book of 2010 – my own, I Am Not Superwoman: Further Essays On Happier Living.  Thank you all for the support you’ve given me and the book this year. You have been the best part of my year.

Filed Under: Happier Living Tagged With: Best books of 2010, books, Father Of the Rain, Invisible Bridge, reading, rosanne cash, stieg larsson

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