A Most Excellent Thanksgiving with Bruce Hilliard, Esq.
Hey there everyone everywhere. That’s a very podcasty thing to say. Happy Thanksgiving for my American listeners. For those of you who live in other countries, happy special November 26th or whatever you call it. Make it a good day wherever you are.
It’s not quite time to start celebrating a new year but kudos to us for weathering 2020 as well as we did. Every day in every way I’m becoming better and better. That was the quote from a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion.
Every day in every way I’m getting better and better. That was the inspiration behind the song “Better Each Day” I wrote in 1980, 40 years ago.
When I needed a name for the podcast, I dipped into my bag of cryogenically stored ideas and out popped Better Each Day. And here we are several thousand downloads later on episode 163.
If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. I’m not sure where I heard that so I Googled Buddy Rich quotes. What he said was “If you think you stink, you probably do.”
Or “I need new underwear, my old ones are running on fumes.” I’m not sure where that one came from.
As a special thank you to the Better Each Day listeners, I’m sitting here at the mic on Thanksgiving Day because this year there’s nothing else I’d rather do than to reflect on a year that was all about rolling with the punches.
And talking about rolling, here’s the worst segue of the year, I’d like to play you my rendition of “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan. It’s four verses of attitude and color, directed at a person that once had it all and:
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging your next meal…
HOW DOES IT FEEL?
I’m watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York. They actually did it. No crowded sidewalks but the floats, pipers with masks and tons of spirit live on.
In traditional fashion, let’s spread a happy note through art and music. I wrote and recorded a song last month called Roses and Strawberry Rain.
Roses refer to the run for the roses Kentucky Derby. Strawberry Rain is a ginger pony that, in the mind of a little girl, grows up to win. The girl fancies herself as horse whisperer and later, as the soon-to-be-made video will portray, has children of her own...and tells the tale of Roses and Strawberry Rain. Forever.
Roses and Strawberry Rain
Born in the light of a lantern
The rain whipped through the stable
Her momma taught her how to walk
When she was barely able
Lightning stuck and thunder came
And sweet Kentucky rain
Roses and ponies and photos lost in time
Run for the roses was destined in her mind
Roses and Strawberry Rain forever
Strawberry Rain was a dark horse
With a whisperer who knew just what to do
And in their final victory
May turned to June
The rains came and washed away, and roses grew
And roses and Strawberry Rain
All of our thoughts are the same
Roses and Strawberry Rain forever
Listen to the children now
When the wild winds blow
Whisper in a good vibration
In a way that everybody knows
And roses and Strawberry Rain
All of our thoughts are the same
Roses and Strawberry Rain forever
Roses and ponies and photos lost in time
Run for the roses still echoed in her mind
Roses and Strawberry Rain remain forever
Thanks for the listen. happy holidays and most of all: Be excellent to each other, party on dudes!
