Don't Worry. Be Happy.
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Stories
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? (v. 25)
Did you ever think about the word “earworm?” The very idea of a literal earworm, some sort of parasite caught inside your ear is such a disturbing image I hate to even think of it. I apologize, but if you some of you need to get the wiggles out go ahead and shake your shoulders a bit.
The thing is, the colloquial use of the word is nearly as bad. An earworm is that song you can’t get out of your head. It’s bad enough if you like the song, at least at first. You hear it, and find yourself humming it, singing snatches of it, unexpectedly. But it can also happen when it’s a song you despise.
Think about that radio jingle “Cars for Kids,” that invites you to donate your car to support children’s charities. Or that Macarena song. Did anybody actually like that song? But you couldn’t stop singing it in your head!
Come to think of it, that would include just about any song by Abba. You know, fast, bouncy, with vapid, pointless lyrics that just get stuck and replayed over and over again. And unlike Spotify or some other streaming service, nobody is paying you royalties for singing that song.
The earworm is actually not a new concept. The Germans evidently created the term öhrwurm to describe the phenomenon of having an insidious song stuck in your brain. Other terms, according to Wikipedia, are brainworm, sticky music, and stuck song syndrome. Serious scientists study the experience, and even try to prescribe practices that will erase them, but do they really work? Sometimes it seems like only time and distance — and refusal to listen to any radio station or streaming service — can erase one of these things.
One thing studies agree upon — almost all of us experience them.
Certainly one of the most pleasant earworms, if we can use the words pleasant and earworm in the same sentence, is the song by Bobby McFerrin called “Don’t Worry. Be Happy.”
You know the one I mean. It begins:
“Here’s a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note. Don’t worry. Be Happy.”
It was written and sung by Bobby McFerrin, a jazz vocalist whose ability to layer musical instruments and vocal harmonies is utterly astounding, especially when you consider he does it all with his voice. This particular song sounds like it’s backed with an array of odd musical instruments but it’s not. That’s McFerrin producing these sounds on his own.
He comes from a musical family, and took his music seriously enough that he spent two years not listening to other people sing so he could develop his own style. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” was his breakout hit. It was released in 1988 and was the first a cappella song to reach the top spot on the Billboard charters. The song won him three Grammys. Since then McFerrin has worked with a variety of musicians as well as some of the most famous orchestras around the world. He has won numerous Grammys in several categories. But he’s best known for that earworm.
McFerrin was inspired to write the song after noticing a poster with those words in the apartment of a couple of his friends. The phrase comes from an Indian mystic named Meher Baba (1894-1969). One of the interesting things about the lyrics is that McFerrin pairs that lighthearted phrase, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” with some very serious problems, things we can’t help but worry about — homelessness (“Ain’t got to place to lay your head”), money (“The landlord says your rent is late, He may have to litigate,”), loneliness (“Ain’t got no gal to make you smile”). These are very serious problems. Still, he insists “In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double.”
In a way, the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, are earworms of sorts. We know them. We remember them. Blessed are the meek. Turn the other cheek. And things like, Consider the lillies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, but not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these.
And in today’s passage, Jesus lists some serious things worth worrying about. Indeed, he makes it clear the worries will keep on coming when he says, “…tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” But if Jesus does not exactly say, “Don’t worry, be happy” he does say “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” That ought to make us happy. Don’t you think? And on this holiday, maybe a little thankful?
Did you ever think about the word “earworm?” The very idea of a literal earworm, some sort of parasite caught inside your ear is such a disturbing image I hate to even think of it. I apologize, but if you some of you need to get the wiggles out go ahead and shake your shoulders a bit.
The thing is, the colloquial use of the word is nearly as bad. An earworm is that song you can’t get out of your head. It’s bad enough if you like the song, at least at first. You hear it, and find yourself humming it, singing snatches of it, unexpectedly. But it can also happen when it’s a song you despise.
Think about that radio jingle “Cars for Kids,” that invites you to donate your car to support children’s charities. Or that Macarena song. Did anybody actually like that song? But you couldn’t stop singing it in your head!
Come to think of it, that would include just about any song by Abba. You know, fast, bouncy, with vapid, pointless lyrics that just get stuck and replayed over and over again. And unlike Spotify or some other streaming service, nobody is paying you royalties for singing that song.
The earworm is actually not a new concept. The Germans evidently created the term öhrwurm to describe the phenomenon of having an insidious song stuck in your brain. Other terms, according to Wikipedia, are brainworm, sticky music, and stuck song syndrome. Serious scientists study the experience, and even try to prescribe practices that will erase them, but do they really work? Sometimes it seems like only time and distance — and refusal to listen to any radio station or streaming service — can erase one of these things.
One thing studies agree upon — almost all of us experience them.
Certainly one of the most pleasant earworms, if we can use the words pleasant and earworm in the same sentence, is the song by Bobby McFerrin called “Don’t Worry. Be Happy.”
You know the one I mean. It begins:
“Here’s a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note. Don’t worry. Be Happy.”
It was written and sung by Bobby McFerrin, a jazz vocalist whose ability to layer musical instruments and vocal harmonies is utterly astounding, especially when you consider he does it all with his voice. This particular song sounds like it’s backed with an array of odd musical instruments but it’s not. That’s McFerrin producing these sounds on his own.
He comes from a musical family, and took his music seriously enough that he spent two years not listening to other people sing so he could develop his own style. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” was his breakout hit. It was released in 1988 and was the first a cappella song to reach the top spot on the Billboard charters. The song won him three Grammys. Since then McFerrin has worked with a variety of musicians as well as some of the most famous orchestras around the world. He has won numerous Grammys in several categories. But he’s best known for that earworm.
McFerrin was inspired to write the song after noticing a poster with those words in the apartment of a couple of his friends. The phrase comes from an Indian mystic named Meher Baba (1894-1969). One of the interesting things about the lyrics is that McFerrin pairs that lighthearted phrase, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” with some very serious problems, things we can’t help but worry about — homelessness (“Ain’t got to place to lay your head”), money (“The landlord says your rent is late, He may have to litigate,”), loneliness (“Ain’t got no gal to make you smile”). These are very serious problems. Still, he insists “In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double.”
In a way, the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, are earworms of sorts. We know them. We remember them. Blessed are the meek. Turn the other cheek. And things like, Consider the lillies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, but not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these.
And in today’s passage, Jesus lists some serious things worth worrying about. Indeed, he makes it clear the worries will keep on coming when he says, “…tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” But if Jesus does not exactly say, “Don’t worry, be happy” he does say “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” That ought to make us happy. Don’t you think? And on this holiday, maybe a little thankful?
