Apr. 4, 2007 – Originally published by CNC, Inc.

What Goes Around...

Well, I have just gotten back from yet another vacation — this one to St. Thomas, which I am pretty sure is not in America. I have reason to believe that St. Thomas is not in America because in America we are obsessed with news, and in St. Thomas our “newspaper” that was delivered to our room each day consisted of three sheets of paper on which the news that the Marriott deemed most important was photocopied on, and then stapled together and slipped under our door. It’s amazing how human beings can adapt, however; on day three of our stay, I was calling lazily from the bed to my husband, “Have they delivered the news pamphlet yet? I want to check the weather back home.” I would pry off the staple, and really spread that baby out for some good reading.

To get to the islands, we had to take a long airplane ride, which was basically uneventful — except for my singing. As readers of this column know, I got an iPod recently, on which I now have 13 songs, and I listen to these 13 songs a lot. One of the songs I had my kids put on my iPod is by Justin Timberlake, and is called “What Goes Around…” I know I might be a little too old for Justin Timberlake’s music, but I love that song; that song really is for everybody in my book. And as one of my 13 songs, I hear it a lot. So, I was sitting on the airplane, and it’s hard to listen to a favorite song without singing along. Sadly, for our airplane, everyone else was without the benefit of music, and were just treated to my a capella singing of this song. So, I was dancing in my seat in my iPod trance and basically yelling out, “…so why your love went away, I just can’t seem to understand…thought it was me and you, baby, me and you until the end…but I guess I was wrong…don’t need to think about it, no, don’t want to talk about it, unh, I’m just so sick about it, can’t believe it’s ending this way... but tell me is this fair…what goes around comes all the way back around…yeah…you should know baby…I know that you’re living a lie…” Not only was I singing that, but there is a little hand motion with that song that involves making a circle with your one hand in the air; I prefer to make this motion over my head when I’m plane-dancing to this song. So, as my husband was jabbing me in the arm and giving me a bruise, I was unknowingly entertaining the whole plane with that song. I have to believe that some people enjoyed it; not everyone rushed off the plane without their bags, purses, and children.

The same thing kind of happened once I was in my hotel room at St. Thomas; I was hanging out on the balcony waiting for my husband to finish his work calls and watching some guys work on some construction right below our window. I thought, “Hmm, I could get my iPod and enjoy a cocktail out here while I’m waiting for him.” I saw a flicker of alarm in his eyes as he saw me get my little pink iPod; he knows I am incapable of just listening. His eyes widened when he saw the drink I was holding, too. Cut to 15 minutes later, and I was singing a heartfelt version of “What Goes Around …” on the balcony; the workers started making mistakes on their building because they thought I was waving at them — I was just doing the “what goes around” hand motion — and were trying to wave back while wielding heavy things, like slabs of concrete.

The trip was great, and highlighted how rushed we Americans really are; I had to slow down my walking, my talking, and even my thinking to fit in, which was cool. As we were winging back to the states, I was glad to be getting back to the kids, but was also glad to be reminded of how big the world really is. But like Dorothy said, what you need really is in your own backyard, and you have to get home to realize that. Because, you know…what goes around comes back around. You are free to do the hand motion now.