...could not have been had (unless a massive lottery win and showering me in diamonds was involved). A heart shaped chocolate chip cookie, a beautiful card, a wonderful dinner, really great company for dinner too...

...and a new single by Chicago. And I listened to it about 40 times yesterday. Really. I shut out the world in my office, put on my headphones and rocked on to it while reprogramming macros in Excel. And the words have a lot of meaning, and I'd like to share them (or a very reasonable facsimile of them, cobbled together by me and some other rabid Chicago fans on one of the boards)

Read the words, read my critique at the end... and follow my reasoning for posting this.

---

"Feel"

So everybody's pulling you in all directions
You don't know how much longer to take it
So you learn how to fake it
That smile on the outside's fading fast
Like the things that you thought for sure would last
but they didn't.
And you know something's missing
Is it your life you're not living?

Your heart is cold, your soul is numb
You don't like who you've become
You played the game, and babe, you've lost it long enough
So grab the reins, take the wheel
Lose what's not and keep what's real
It's not too late,
Just close your eyes and feel... feel.

You can't tell if you're happy or sad
You can't tell the good from the bad,
You're senseless
To waste your senses
Maybe stop thinking with your head
Start using your heart instead,
Just try it
You just might like it
Aren't you're dying to start living?

(Repeat chorus)

Every breath that's going through you
Take each day that's given to you
To love back the ones who love you...

Your heart is cold, your soul is numb
You don't like who you've become
You played the game, and babe, you've lost it long enough
So grab the reins, take the wheel
Lose what's not and keep what's real
It's not too late,
Just close your eyes and feel...

---

The song dies off with a couple of soft repeats of a couple of lines, and then comes back in traditional Chicago power ballad - strong guitar, nice horn lines, and ends going into a brass and strings style classical arrangement. I mention the good before the bad... well, it's not bad, but hearing an overprocessed Robert Lamm and synthesizers and drum machines starting a Chicago song isn't what I'm used to. But even still, after a couple of listens, that didn't bother me, and it fit wonderfully as the song gave way to less synth and more *them*.

But that's not the reason I posted these lyrics. For some reason they've been pulling at me for a couple of weeks. I pulled out the mp3 of the concert version because I was getting excited about the single coming soon and listened to it a few times and it stuck with me for some reason. I would have posted the lyrics sooner, but I wasn't really sure about a couple of the lines. But I'm digressing, the point of this is...

We often move through life, just going through the paces at different phases of our lives. And I sort of felt like that, and then I heard this song, and it just lifted me out of it. That's why I'm posting these lyrics - for anyone who is just going through the motions and feels like they've lost touch with themselves or the ones that they love. When you feel that you're just doing something to get by, or to fit in, or to not rock the boat because you don't think that anyone's going to accept you if you are yourself.

It's time to just let go, drop the masks, stop thinking and just feel...

---

"Feel" was written by Dan Orton and Blair Daly, has been recorded by Chicago, and released as a single to radio by Rhino/Warner WEA on February 14. 2006. All copyrights belong to the owners of this material. "Feel" is available as a single on iTunes.