In My Life

I've often described myself as having "low music tolerance". I can't talk when music plays in the car. I sometimes just CAN'T tolerate music playing... it's not because I hate music. I love it. It's just that sometimes lyrics (like all words) affect me deeply. Words are NEVER just background noise for me. They set the mood and influence how I feel.

The song I've been particularly affected by tonight is Ozzy Osbourne's cover of "In My Life". The song was never a favorite of mine. The lyrics seemed depressing- I felt like he was singing about all the loss he's been through, and I didn't understand why he would sing about past loves in a song that was, ostensibly, being sung to his current love. And then I heard it with new ears- he's NOT singing about loss, or about past loves. He's singing to the person he loves and telling her that every single thing he's been through has made him love her more. It's made him see her as even more precious. He's not denouncing his past, he's not saying it doesn't matter- he doesn't have to, in order to be deeply in love with this person.

It's possibly the most beautiful love song I've ever heard. Everyone has a past, and everyone has scars. Your memory isn't erased the moment you meet "the one", and if it were, you wouldn't be able to realize how impossibly wonderful that person was. I used to think that shucking your past was something you did when you met someone right for you, but that's not what love is.

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life, I love you more