What makes me happy? In answering that question as part of @connecteconomy's 30-day #song-challenge on Steemit.com I realised that it was one of the most important things in life. I invite you to listen to this track as you read...

DAY 9: A SONG THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY

image source

Check out this track on the STEEMIT SOUNDS: SLIGHT RETURN soundtrack

This is a live version from 2011 when they toured the album to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Primal Scream were written off as a rock band after their disastrous self-titled album release in 1989. Deciding they needed to reinvent themselves, they gave DJ Andrew Weatherall a track off that album (I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have) to create something new with it. The single that came from that experiment was Loaded, which was a massive success in the Ecstacy-fuelled Dance clubs of the early 90's.

With this new direction, the band then went in and recorded their next single, Come Together (the version in the video below). But it was Weatherall's remix of the single that was included in their next album, the highly acclaimed Screamadelica (1991), which became an anthem to the times.

[youtube

]

This is a beautiful day
It is a new day
We are together
We are unified, and all for the cause
Because together, we got power

In considering my choice of song for this post, I found a synchronicity with a project I am currently engaged in, a translation of the ancient Chinese Book of Changes.

Background

The 易經 I Ching (Book of Changes) is an ancient Chinese philosophical text, which may date as far back to before the 1st Millennium BCE. The extant version we have today is courtesy of Confucius, or at least his students or disciples, and this version can only be dated as far back as the 5th Century BCE.

It seems that it was originally intended as an early divination manual. There is some evidence that original commentaries were created at the very beginning of the Zhou Dynasty (~1046 BCE), with some references to contemporary events found within some of the sections. By Confucius' time, it became a book of wisdom to be used to help guide rulers on making decisons appropriate to time, place, and context.

Coming together

As I considered "a song that makes me happy", the answer as immediately obvious. And what a great excuse to play this track.

Immediately I was taken back to a number of past moments where this song has featured, as well as other moments of happiness. This song doesn't make me happy, however. It serves as an audible anchor that triggers a particular internal state. When I access this state, I am 'transported' to moments of bliss, my memories also serving as 'anchors' to those moments, and the state attached to them.

Those moments have always involved 'coming together' with groups of people. Sometimes they have been on dance-floors, sometimes at parties, other times on the stage, or out in the wilderness. The moments are all very different in context, but all have in common the presence and the unity of a group of people.

And that's when I realised this was precisely the message of the section of the I Ching which I had been translating and contemplating during the week.

The 8th hexagram is called 比 Bì, sometimes translated as 'union' or 'coming together'. It describes the various ways and means that the reader would respond to moments whereby this action is called for.

It provides suggestions to a potential leader about how to attract people to them, and create a strong bond of unity. This involves fairly typical advice around being virtuous, and what not. But what was also interesting was a line that stated that 'coming together' is the source of all wisdom, and the primal force in the universe. The image created by the 6 lines is of "water flowing over the earth", in that when the soil is moist and nourished, then this provides the perfect ground for many forms of life to sprout.

What thrives is a "coming together" of diverse individuals; that the sustainability of a society is not from sameness, and that ultimately if the people are genuine about unity, then it will happen even when they may feel "disquieted and uncertain". And there may be those who don't wish to be part of the union; and that is OK too, and a virtuous leader or ruler is the one that doesn't force anyone to be part of the unity, letting them to make choices of their own free-will.

When I listen to this track, I am reminded that my happy place is when I am with the people I love and care about. Socialising with loved ones is the highest Value I have.

Something special happens when people come together freely, and with open hearts. There is nothing they can't achieve, and nothing they can't achieve that won't have lasting effects. When they're brought together under false pretences, or by someone with ulterior motives or disingenuous agendas, then that unity is ultimately going to fail.

I'm happy in the moments of 'coming together' not merely because I'm with a group of people having a good time; it's also the celebration of what different people can achieve when they come together. When I'm with the people I love (my tribe, my community, my friends and family), I recognise the differences between us — but I'm not seeing those differences as somehow keeping us apart, but as what brings us together. In nature, it's the diversity that creates a robust, thriving eco-system, not homogeneity.

What's more, we are all there in that one place because we have chosen to be there. We want to come together.

So that's why this song 'makes' me feel happy. The message is in the lyrics, but the rhythm and music also wants me to get up, dance, and celebrate the moments of union with others.

Listen, and enjoy!
😊🙏🏽☯️