Dear Jessica Brennan,
Almost all of us have referred to a band as a “One Hit Wonder”. Sometimes, in truth, we call it that because we have only warmed to one of their hits. They might have more, but “Daydream Believer” is the only one we really know.
As much as the term can be derogatory, personally, I would love to have one hit. That would be awesome.
In any case, I was thinking about the term and about how sometimes that hit comes out at exactly the right time, which is why it appeals to the masses. Songs like, “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred, “Kung Foo Fighting” by Carl Douglas, or “Macarena” by Los Del Rio seemed to find popularity at a time when we needed to lighten things up a bit. It is like the timing was perfect and we like the song because we needed it.
I wonder about people. Can people be a One Hit Wonder in other people’s lives? I think they can.
I remember a few years back I was standing in Chapters/Indigo searching through the self improvement section for something I hadn’t read. I was in a slump personally. Things were not going that well from my perspective and I thought I needed a good read to snap me out of it. I have never really been into the super self-helpers like Tony Robbins, not because I don’t agree with his message, but more because he is too Evangelical in his approach which makes me feel distrustful. I don’t like being shouted at, even if it is for my own good. All that noisy, extroversion puts my teeth on edge.
As I was picking one book up after another, trying to decide if each representation of self-help was a little too, well self-helpy-ish for me, a salesperson came over. His name badge said, Michael and he asked if he could help me. I told him I was looking for something to read (he’s never heard that one before) and he started to suggest one title after the other.
“How about this book by Wayne Dyer?”
I had read it.
“What about this one by Carolyn Myss?”
I had read it.
“This is very inspiring by Byron Katie.”
I had read it.
“How about this one called The Action Sandwich?”
I wrote it.
Michael didn’t show any signs of frustration with me whatsoever. In fact, I think he found me ever so slightly intriguing. I told him I was feeling stuck. I needed to get out of a rut I was in, and a depression I was generally feeling about how things were going in that moment of my life. I explained that I am not a stranger to these feelings. I feel called to make change in the world and if I am not doing so, I feel like a failure. It makes me depressed to not be able to fix things.
I’m an introvert. I don’t normally say things like this, but with Michael it was different. He smiled warmly. He didn’t flinch, or look nervously around, or get another associate to help me while he went behind the counter to make fun of me. “We’ve got a live one here tonight!” He truly seemed to hear me.
After a few more minutes of chatting, he told me he thought he had what I needed. He asked me if he could go to his car and get me something? “I don’t do drugs,” is what I was thinking, but I agreed. It was a cold night in January. Snow was flying and I thought Michael must either be going to try to sell me something, or was driving as fast and far away from me as he could. Why else would he scream outside in his Chapters’ vest to fetch something from the car?
Soon he was back with a homemade DVD in his hand. He said he wanted to give it to me. He told me that there was a book coming out in a few months called The Secret.
“You’re going to hate it,” he told me. (He was right). He said that during the making of The Secret, a whole bunch of thinkers, philosophers and New Age writers had come together to discuss the concept of the The Law of Attraction. The intent was that this DVD would be a 60 minute discussion to help push book sales, but when those involved saw the thrust of the book once it went through the various levels of publishing, they pulled their names out of the project, pre-release.
The book when released had too much of a focus on money. It made it sound like if you sat on your bed and thought hard about being a billionaire, you would go to your mailbox and find a bag of cash. They didn’t like this direction so would not be involved.
Lots of people loved the book, maybe even you, so don’t crucify me. I am a total believer in the Law of Attraction, but I didn’t care for the commercial nature of the book and The Secret frenzy that followed. In truth, I think the real secret was calling it The Secret. It’s no secret that what you put out you get back, (the seeds go in and the plant grows) but making it sound like a secret was brilliant marketing.
In any case, Michael handed me the DVD that stormy night. I asked if I could pay him for it or bring it back to him and he said no. He said that when I was done with it, he wanted me to give it to someone else who I thought might be ready to watch it.
I went home and watched the DVD, and the words made real sense to me at a time when I needed to hear them. This concept of you reap what you sow, was not new, but told through a variety of stories and perspectives of thought, really resonated with me in a new way and changed the course of how I lived my life, not in a frivolous treat of the week way, but with a deeper understanding.
A few days later I went back to Chapters/Indigo to thank Michael, but he wasn’t there. Again, on the weekend I went back but couldn’t find him, so I finally asked at the checkout when he would be working. No one seemed to know a Michael that worked in the store. Michael was though, my One Hit Wonder.
I hope that there is someone out there who I held a door for, engaged in conversation when they were having a rough time, thanked for something that is usually ignored, or I was just kind to in a time when no one else was, who remembers me as their One Hit Wonder. I hope for someone out there, I’m that person, maybe even that stranger, who came in at the right time and hit them with a loving truth or heard them and saw them for who they really are, before fading back into my own world. If so, then I have been someone’s One Hit Wonder.
Love Mum
xo
