A Note to My Sons - Lessons from Taylor Swift

I am 51 years old and I love Taylor Swift.

My whole family loves her too. Even my boys, now 23 and 19, have been heard humming a T. Swift tune.

God has gifted her as a songwriter, and she is happily (and profitably) sharing that talent with the world. She just captures the ecstasy and angst of young love, doesn't she?

Her latest album Red, has one song that I especially like, "Begin Again." It's beautiful and haunting and hopeful.

I'm including all the lyrics to the song below, but there are a few specific lines that, when I heard them, I thought, "I hope Taylor Swift could have written that about my boys."

Begin Again

Took a deep breath in the mirror

He didn't like it when I wore high heels

But I do

Turn the lock and put my headphones on

He always said he didn't get this song

But I do, I do

Walked in expecting you'd be late

But you got here early and you stand and wave

I walk to you

You pull my chair out and help me in

And you don't know how nice that is

But I do

And you throw your head back laughing

Like a little kid

I think it's strange that you think I'm funny cause

He never did

I've been spending the last 8 months

Thinking all love ever does

Is break and burn and end

But on a Wednesday in a cafe

I watched it begin again

You said you never met one girl who

Had as many James Taylor records as you

But I do

We tell stories and you don't know why

I'm coming off a little shy

But I do

And you throw your head back laughing

Like a little kid

I think it's strange that you think I'm funny cause

He never did

I've been spending the last 8 months

Thinking all love ever does

Is break and burn and end

But on a Wednesday in a cafe

I watched it begin again

And we walked down the block, to my car

And I almost brought him up

But you start to talk about the movies

That your family watches every single Christmas

And I want to talk about that

And for the first time

What's past is past

And you throw your head back laughing

Like a little kid

I think it's strange that you think I'm funny cause

He never did

I've been spending the last 8 months

Thinking all love ever does

Is break and burn and end

But on a Wednesday in a cafe

I watched it begin again

But on a Wednesday in a cafe

I watched it begin again

As you probably figured out, I highlighted the lines that hit me - and in different colors. I did that so I could get all fancy and match the lesson I saw to the highlighted words above.

Yellow: Be on time. Please be on time. Nothing says my time is more important than yours than making people wait on you. Better yet, adopt your grandfather's practice of "Never later than 5 minutes early." If you say you're going to be somewhere at a certain time, be there.

Green: Be a gentleman. Honor the girls you are with. It's the right thing to do and it never goes out of style.  They are somebody's daughter and somebody's sister. Think about how you want the guys who take your sisters out to treat them.

Orange: Be unself-conscious. Be natural and genuine. Be real. And, really listen to people. Think more about what they are saying than what you are going to say in response. And, when they say something funny, throw your head back and laugh like a little kid!

Aqua: Be protective. Call me old fashioned, I don't care. Walk a lady to her door or her car - where ever she happens to be going, see her there safely.

Now, I know my boys have heard all this. And, I'm hoping they already do all of this. But just in case they've forgotten, and because I love them, I'm taking the opportunity to remind them! And I'm smiling thinking about how Taylor will remind them every time this song plays on the radio!

Oh wow, Taylor. When you wrote this song, you had no idea a midwest Mom would write such a post. And boy oh boy, do I sound like a mom in those "Be" statements above.

But that's what I am. A mom who loves her sons and aches for them - prays for them - to be real men. Men who care for and honor the young women they know and date.

Luke and David - as little kids