The one where I implore you to listen to some music and twirl away your stress from the comfort of your living room (or bedroom).
Does anyone remember the teen comedy-drama Freaks and Geeks? It debuted on NBC in 1999 to critical acclaim but never really found an audience to sustain it. Which is a total shame, IMO, because it was one of the most authentic shows to air on network television. While telling many different, oftentimes difficult, stories throughout its short 18-episode run, the central plot revolved around high school senior Lindsay and her struggle to find herself and fit in. Something I totally identify with. Questioning the comfortable path laid out for her by her parents, she inches into new territory on her exploratory journey. She leaves the mathletes team and abandons her best friend so that she can hang with the edgier "freaks" and attend keg parties and Who concerts. But we also see her struggle with toeing that line. Which path is the right one? Safety and making your parents happy? Or charting your own, soul-freeing path? Ironically, it's her guidance counselor who sets her on a new course. After she is accepted into a prestigious summer program at a state university, she goes to see him to discuss her reservations. He responds by quoting the Grateful Dead to her. “When I was in college back in the 1700s,” he tells her, “I’d put their album American Beauty on whenever I was stressing out. It always helped.” He lends her the record, expecting that it will guide her towards attending the program. Instead, she finally finds herself in the opening track, "Box of Rain." You see the epiphany happen as she replays the song over and over and over again and the lyrics wash over her. “Look out of any window/Any morning, any evening, any day.” She throws her hands up, begins to smile and twirl, completely enthralled by what she's hearing. It's a beautiful moment and one that any Deadhead can identify with. My friends and I were having a discussion about that scene the other day and I commented that I felt bad for anyone who had never been so taken by a song that they were compelled to just twirl and twirl and twirl. It's so freeing and beautiful and, yes, stress-relieving.
And then I realized there probably were people who had never had that experience!
So, below are five excellent songs to twirl to. Note: twirling is not limited to Grateful Dead songs, but their lyrics and music provide a great background for it. If you really can't get into them, put on a song that you respond to and give it a shot. Don't think about anything else. Just feel the music and let yourself go.
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