Born This Way

“There is in each of us a fire that we are afraid to let burn”
                                - Clint Piatelli

       Hearing a song for the first time can be like doing your very first ever line of cocaine. Your insides experience this glorious explosion that you’ve never felt before, and you ride this wave of invincibility. Unlike coke, however, there’s no hangover with music. And, unlike any drug, you get the opportunity to experience this magic again, every time you hear another new song that blows your heart, mind, and soul. It’s reincarnated virginity, and it can happen many times during your life.
       This happened to me the other day, and thanks to our instant society, I had the song in my collection within twenty-four hours. When discerning the lyrics, one word in particular proved pivotal, and set in motion the wheels of this writing.
       At first, I thought the word in question was “Lucky”. Then after a dozen more listens, I was convinced that wasn’t it. The word didn’t fit the rest of the song. So then I listened more, and I thought the word could be a phrase: “Love Me”. Well that fit better, but I wasn’t convinced. So I broke down and looked up the lyrics. The word was actually “Lightning”. Okay. Given the whole of the song, that fit like a fuckin’ glove. And for me it turned the whole experience of the song into something else.   
       I’ll now share the chorus, which amps the tune into overdrive right away. I love when bands start songs with an ass-kicking chorus. To wit, the song “Born This Way” by Thousand Foot Krutch:

Because I was born this way
I got lightning running through my veins
Ain’t nobody gonna stop this train
So hop on board or get out of the way

       When a song moves me as powerfully as this one does, I take a look at what the song is emotionally saying to me. I examine how its energy applies to my life.
       I believe I was indeed “born this way”, meaning that some of the essential elements of my personality where there from the get go. I’m not going to debate nature versus nurture here, because in this context, I don’t care. My story, however, is that although I was born this way, it took a long time for “this way” to develop. Because a lot of who I was deep down on the inside was completely repressed until I hit my late teens. Then it just exploded, and quite frankly, the explosion continues today. More and more of myself becomes revealed to me, to my life, all the time, and I connect more deeply and more securely to those elementals of who I am.
       Like the oak tree’s way is to be an oak tree, my way is to be my way. That means more fully living my purpose. That means more harmoniously being my nature. I do indeed have lightning running through my veins, and when I’m fully connected to that, I shine. I radiate, organically, naturally, and that light has the potential to impact others. That light, both in energetic form and in manifested action, moves people. It touches them. It dents their universe.
       That’s my way. I was born with it. And, although it is innate in me, there’s a life long process of development, of growth. A perpetual process of uncovering, of recovering. A journey down the path of self expansion.  
       We all have some kind of lightning in our veins. But how connected to it are we? How aware of it are we? What does it look like? What does it feel like? How do we manifest it? Do we access that energy, and use it to fuel our lives? To fuel our loves?
       The more I work with my own lighting, the more I discover how to help others to use theirs. Because that’s part of my way too. I want to guide you in riding your own lightning. I want to do that with my writing. With my drumming. With all my art. With my way. Indeed, with my whole life.
       Because I was born this way
       I got lighting running through my veins
       So do you.  

©2014 Clint Piatelli, MuscleHeart LLC, and Red F Publishing. All rights reserved.

To hear fifteen seconds of the chorus, go to The Music Behind The Stories, and click on "Born This Way".