Myself Already Knows I'm Not O.K.

"...tell your Aunt Louise, tell anything you please.

Myself already knows I'm not O.K."

--Bill Ray Cyrus, lyric from 'Achy Breaky Heart'

I have a habit of collecting quotes, wise statements, various song lyrics that move me, make me laugh, or that I've made up. One line that's caught my attention recently was this line from "Achy Breaky Heart." Say what you want about the song, the truth is it was a gigantic hit that's probably still covering the cost of cable and internet in the Cyrus household. And fountains, and flat screens, and gasoline and breakfasts and lunches and dinners and their NES electricity bill. I don't want to converse on whether the song was a hit (admit that you have it on a CasSingle and let's move on). This lyric is so simple and yet reaches pretty deep into the human experience. Think of the struggles we have as people, as a whole, and individually. As Reese Witherspoon once said, "we each have our own set of problems." Whether you're rich or poor or somewhere in between, you have problems. A rich person's problems are different than a middle class person's problems, but what they both have in common is this: problems. And part of the solution (and the CAUSE) is found in discovering who you are. How long do you think it took for Billy Ray Cyrus to learn he was "not O.K"? And then how much longer till he was able to come to grips with that discovery? When a person stops blaming external factors for their problems, but accepts that they themselves are "not O.K." and the problems are most likely born internally, well that's a step in a good direction.

A direction that may lead to freedom, a happy life, and a hit country song.