Oh baby baby it's a wild world...

Today I had a musical epiphany, in the kitchen at my restaurant job of all places. Every day when I come in to prepare for the night's work, the kitchen guys are listening to music as they set up. When I first started my job, all we ever listened to was Sublime and Tenacious D. The kitchen is a high stress, testosterone fueled place, and as crappy as I thought the music was, songs about sticking the barrel of your shotgun down some guy's throat kind of fit. Today though, someone put on a Cat Stevens CD. As "Wild World" played, I looked around and pretty much everyone was singing along, and without even a flicker of irony on their faces. That song is such a lovely, upbeat song about how hard the world can be. I went upstairs to our stockroom where the chef's wife, who is all perfume and gigantic diamond rings, was singing along to the strains of "Moonshadow" floating up through the kitchen ceiling. As I made my way back into the kitchen, I ran into one of the chefs from another of our owner's restaurants, who had stopped in to borrow some supplies. When I asked him how he was, he answered, "Eh... but this Cat Stephens is making it better." What I realized then, was that pretty much no one can resist the sweet lull of Cat Stephens. Even when he's singing to you that world is messed up, you still feel like things will be okay. As for me, I was waiting to hear "Morning Has Broken."