The boys were in the car ready to go. A little sleepy, but ready to go. I hopped into the car, backed out of the garage, and headed toward their school. Turning on the radio, what did I find? A perfectly good “sing along song,” U2’s “One.”
As the car bounced along, the kids seemed in a hypnotic trance. Excellent conditions for me to launch into song. Sadly however, after about a minute of driving and singing, I realized I was getting about half of the lyrics wrong.
“(Something, something)
One love,
One life,
(Something, something)
In the night
It’s one love
(Something, something)
(Oh why bother even trying, when you obviously don’t know the words)
…care for it.”
A horrible, horrible bit of karaoke. The kids seemed oblivious. They bounced along in the back seat. Little itty bitty lifeless zombies, trapped in their father’s nonsensical wrong lyrics Hell.
I could not take it any longer. I was driving even myself mad. I could not nail a single line of the song. I was floundering. I was drowning. My kids did not seem to notice. They were silent. I stopped singing. The car was silent, with the exception of Bono. He got all the words right. I was all alone. I was sad.
We drove along listening. It must have been a whole thirty seconds. An eternity for me to stay silent. Then came the chorus. I listened, but I could not resist. I had to try again. I could do it. I could be “One” with Bono. My kids looked numb to it all. Silent pain in their eyes.
“One” more try. Yes, I could do it. I truly believed. That’s when I did it, I hit the perfect notes, sang the perfect words…
“Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus,
to the lepers in your head?”
Nailed it! More silence from the backseat. A deafening absence of clapping. They had witnessed an epic comeback that would long be remembered in the history of car sing-along solos, but my kids just wanted out of the car. I was proud, they were lumps of unappreciative flesh.
“Bono, Bono, wherefore art thou Bono?”