I really wanted to come up with something witty, smart and important to say about Occupy Wall Street. I sat and sat and sat, staring at my computer screen, trying to articulate how I feel about the movement. But I couldn’t. I have so many mixed emotions, and many of them start with the fact that I can’t figure out what the hell they actually want to accomplish. I can’t figure out what general, cohesive concept that they stand for. I get that they’re frustrated and desperate, and want things to change, but after spending hours (seriously, hours) on their blog, many of them just come across as whiny, spoiled brats who can’t accept the fact that they made poor choices. Granted, some stories are heart-wrenching and make me want to cry, but usually I just get pissed. I’m not pissed that their exercising their Constitutional right to free speech nor am I pissed that they’re taking time away from looking for a job to protest (how they use their time is none of my concern) nor am I pissed that they’re standing up for what they believe is right and just (whatever that may be).  No, I’m mainly pissed because I hate that they claim to represent 99% of the population and not one of them ever asked me if I wanted them speaking for me. Because you know what? I don’t. I do just fine speaking for myself. And for the record, the 1% and the 53% don’t speak for me either.

During one of the many hours I’ve spent on their blog, I noticed that Our Lady Peace, a band I generally like, wrote a song about the movement, “Fight the Good Fight”. Like the movement in general, I don’t know what I think about the song. I respect what OLP did, highlighting the protesters and quoting their handmade signs in the lyrics and giving somewhat mainstream support to the movement (I did enjoy the one sign that quoted Rage Against the Machine) but I have very (VERY) strong opinions about actors and musicians getting all up on a political soapbox. Even though this is my blog, my own soapbox if if you will, I’m not going to share those opinions.

No, instead, I’m going to offer a slightly different opinion on the OWS movement, particularly in response to those who say that they can’t fulfill their dreams for whatever reason they use (it varies from person to person). I feel that it is possible to achieve your dreams, even if you have to modify them a little bit. I’ll use myself as an example. I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I dream of being a prolific and well-received author along the lines of Jen Lancaster or Jodi Picoult. But you know what? I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. I’m OK with that because I’ve found other ways to make my dream of being a writer come true. I’ve also learned that no one, absolutely no one, but me is going to make my dreams happen. And I have to work my ass off for it. And I will.

For today’s money tune, I chose Poison’s “Cry Tough”. I know you’re thinking that I’m out of my mind to chose a 25 year old song by, of all bands, Poison, to express a counteropinion to OWS (and, depending on how you interpret the lyrics, it can support the movement, too). Since the video is hard to watch (the teased hair and clown make-up are tough to look at it), here are the lyrics:

Remember the nights we’ve sat
and talked about all our dreams
Well little did we know then
they were more distant than they seemed
Well I knew it
and you knew it too
The things we’d go through
We knew the things we had to do
to make it, baby

Chorus:
You gotta cry tough
Out on the streets
To make your dreams happen
You gotta cry out
Out to the world
To make them all come true

Life ain’t no easy ride
At least that’s what I am told
Sometimes a rainbow baby
is better than a pot of gold, well
You’ve got to stick it out
whether you’re wrong or right
And you can’t give in without a fight
to make it baby

Chorus

You gotta aim high, baby
whether you lose or win
And when you get to the top
You gotta get off and go right back down again

And, in case you want to watch it, here’s the video:

I grew up on Long Island. Long Island, while set underneath the glowing lights of Manhattan (and downwind from the smells of Staten Island), was nothing but a boring pit of dissatisfaction. More than anything, I wanted to leave my town and move on to bigger and better things (which happened, of course, when I moved to Delaware. How’s that for ambition?). As a teenager, I was immersed in all of the typical suburban teenage feeling of loneliness, isolation, boredom, sadness and angst.

I was also a teenager during the time of Nirvana. I distinctly remember the impact that Smells Like Teen Spirit had on my friends and I remember the atmosphere in the halls of my high school the day we found out Kurt Cobain had committed suicide. And while I knew it was sad, and significant, I really wasn’t impacted all that much. Because I identified with different music. I identified with Rush.

For some reason, Rush’s music spoke to me in ways that other music didn’t. When I heard their song Subdivisions, I had found the song that completely encompassed how I felt about where I lived. What interesting is that the song’s lyrics still resonate with me, not so much because I’m full of teenage angst and sadness but because they’re just that good. What I like about this song is that it reminds me of where I came from, where I am, where I want to be and all the things that fall in between.

While today’s Money Tune is not so much about money as it is about hopes, dreams, discontent and the power that those have over our lives.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

http://youtu.be/Lu9Ycq64Gy4

I’ve tried to avoid posting this song as much as possible. Living near New Jersey and Philly, and being in my thirties, I have had my fill of this song. More than my fill. In fact, I have heard this song so much that if I never hear it again, I still will not be able to forget it. I will be 80 years old, still humming along to Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On a Prayer.

But try as I mightl to avoid it, I had a conversation at the Financial Blogger Conference this past weekend and there was no way I wasn’t sharing it (at least it’s not Don’t Stop Believing, right?).

And for the record, Runaway and Bad Medicine are far superior.

Decrease your possessions. Increase your own self-sufficiency by gardening and sewing. Become satisfied with needs instead of wants. Focus on what’s important instead of the material. All of these are components of voluntary simplicity.  Website, books, online forums, blogs–voluntary simplicity has become its own industry. But there was a song, written in 1973, that extols the virtues of simple living long before it became mainstream lexicon. That song? Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man. Which happens to be today’s money tune.

I wanted to include Shinedown’s version which is, hands down, one of the best covers I have ever heard (even better than Steel Panther’s cover of Don’t Stop Believin’ or Tesla’s cover of Signs, which actually happens to be one of my all-time favorite songs). But sometimes you just have to go with the original.

My favorite lyric? Is this:

“Forget your lust, for the rich man’s gold,

All that you need, is in your soul”