An energy flows from my upper stomach and into my eyes and exits through my armhairs when I listen to “Every New Day” by Five Iron Frenzy.
Five Iron Frenzy is a now-defunct Christian ska band from the 1990’s. They were among the biggest bands on the Christian touring circuit for a while in the mid-1990’s, at the height of the short-lived pop-ska scene (remember Squirrel Nut Zippers?). They were also one of the best bands of that decade.
They had 2 1/2 good albums followed by a bunch of crap, which is as good as we can hope for most of the time.
“Every New Day” is something of a rock-infused ballad. It is up-beat and heart-felt at the same time. It is genuine and caring.
While the lyrics were written in deference to the Big Man in the Clouds, I think a lot about Lisa when I hear it today. It is about how someone can make someone else feel like every day is fresh, beautiful, and exciting.
One time back in 2001, I was waiting in line at a Dairy Queen with a former girlfriend. We were fighting about something that was probably not worth fighting over when I saw a mentally challenged girl a few spots up order a chocolate fudge ice-cream sundae. When I saw how happy the girl order became when the sundae hit her hands, I immediately lost all reason to argue.
Here I was with someone that I cared about, enjoying a summer day at a DQ, waiting for ice cream, and fighting about something dumb. The fickleness of human interactions was visible, and I became instantly ashamed.
The girl with the sundae was beautiful, and we were raining on her parade….or maybe she was shining a ray of sunshine on ours.
There are people among us who are rays of light. There are those of us that suck up sunlight, and there are those that radiate it.
There are great and wonderful things happening in this world all around us all the time. Sometimes it helps to be reminded of that.