Our feet are saying goodbye

I feel the need to explain the title of this blog, although most who know me will get it.

Unfortunately, I now realize that I've done this backwards, because I'm giving away the punch line before I've told the story. That said, we'll carry on.

When I was growing up, my dad made me a tape of "The Sound of Music" soundtrack. (Remember those days of having to flip the tape over halfway? And knowing that there was always one side that was better than the other?)

I listened to the tape a lot. My favorite songs were "I am Sixteen, Going on Seventeen" and "Edelweiss." The former because I liked to pretend I was Liesl, dancing around the gazebo. (Not because I wanted to have a clandestine romance with a boy who would turn out to be a Nazi.) The latter because I liked to imagine myself as one of the Von Trapp family singers. (Instead, I was born into a family where a significant portion of the people on my mom's side are tone deaf.)

Another song I liked was "So Long, Farewell." The Von Trapp kids sing it when they're allowed to make an appearance at a dinner party to say goodnight to everyone. One by one, they sing a verse and...this is very important...walk slowly away. With their feet.

Which explains why I thought the lyrics to the song were:
"So long, farewell, our feet are saying goodbye" and NOT "So long, farewell, auf widersehen, goodbye."

Go ahead.
Sing it.
See?

I can only vaguely convey the stunning nature of the "lightbulb" moment I had when I realized they were saying "Auf Widersehen." Yes, I know they were in Austria. Where they speak German. But, in my defense, they also spoke and sang in ENGLISH throughout the whole movie.

And yes, you might have thought I would realize this before I was in my 20s. But I didn't.

So, with the title of this blog, I'm saying better late than never. I'm saying embrace your mistakes, and even laugh about them. And I'm saying sing loudly, even when you have the lyrics stunningly wrong.