Good Morning Jessicca...

Letter to My Daughter
23 December, Sunday

Good Morning Jessicca…

Gangnam Style has become the first video to surpass one billion views.  The words 

are Korean but what does it matter?  The visuals are magnetic, sexy and irreverent.  

The music is energetic and infectious.  I first watched it without sound and I laughed 

through much of it.  It was often unpredictable and hilarious.  With the sound, though, 

I was rolled by the music.  I couldn't sit still.  I had to join in. 

How does it feel to be young at its best?  You can’t rely on words here.  Talking about 

what inspires youth would be like driving a high-performance car with the four tires flat.  

The youthful spirit is best conveyed with feeling – raucous, kinetic and subversive.  

When you’re having the time of your life at twenty-two you’re too busy experiencing it 

to think about it.  You’re living Gangnam Style. 

Actually I did Google the lyrics and found out the artist Psy downs his coffee while still 

too hot to drink and the woman on the subway drives him wild with desire even though 

she is fully clothed.  That’s about it.  That is all the message you will find using words.  

But if you've watched the video and spasm danced with the music… you knew it all 

already, anyway.

Of course, living life at eighteen or twenty-two, or whatever, has its complications; 

sometimes dark, tormenting.  Four minutes of joyous dance video can bring slumbering 

embers to a crackling flame.  There’s always a story line that precedes the vital  release.  Can we know exhilaration without first knowing struggle?  Even the spontaneity celebrated in this video is successful because it was first carefully plotted out, choreographed, experimented with and repeatedly rehearsed. 

So, OK, there’s some kind of work ethic here.  That doesn't mean a conscientious cubicle worker can daydream this production while wrestling with spreadsheets.  The mind in the cubicle is often a lawn sprinkler, carefully nurturing symmetrical plantings.  The nature  of Psy could more likely be that of a fire hose stream, chaotic energy barely restrained.  Much of the time you manage to color within the lines but you've the instincts of an artist and, at times, you just have to scribble. 

We prosper comfortably from the benefits of our carefully orchestrated society.  But after a time the air becomes so intolerably stale.  We are revived once a fresh wind courses through a window shattered by the one among us talented enough to mask rebellion as charm.  I have no idea how many times you've seen Gangnam Style.  You might have one more look.  Here’s the link:  Gangnam Style - take notice of what entertains us.  It’s playful.  It’s flamboyant.  It makes no sense.  We just instinctively understand without the benefit of words.  We need no training to know how to respond.  It’s fun.  It’s kid’s stuff.  It’s some kind of art.

Merry Christmas, Jessicca!

Love,

          Dad