Move On and Do Your Job

Some Milkshakes just aren't worth having.......

“Cheyenne, why didn’t you continue to stay in the Music Industry ?  Don’t get me wrong.  You and your Sisters sounded great together, but why didn’t you go on to pursue a solo career ?”

“Well, I’ve always had trouble just focusing on doing one thing, because, in a sense, I’ve never really been ambitious, and I have a lot of Interests.  I’ve always just enjoyed doing and pursuing, for periods of time, the things in Life that Interested me, and came Naturally to me.”

“I inherited the abilities to Sing, to Write Music and Lyrics, Poetry, and Prose, to create Visual Art, and entertain others.  But I also loved to Teach, and to help Heal others.  In fact, I almost became a Nurse.”

“Why not a Doctor ?”

“That possibility never even occurred to me.  I was raised in an environment where nothing career-wise was expected of me.  I was taught that my Duties in Life were to marry and have Children, period.  In my neck of the woods, women having a career was not encouraged.  It was not nurtured.  Women were to be Seen, but not Heard.”

“Besides, from the age of five, if anyone asked me what I wanted to be in Life, I would proudly proclaim that I wanted to be a Traveling Singing Missionary.  That I was going to tell everyone about the Love of Jesus and save the World, ha !”

“Pretty pretentious for a five year old, I know.  But it was an innocent pretension, because I really did not know that much about the World.  My Mom did the primary raising of all of us girls.  And that raising took place in the Baptist Church, and an idyllic Ivory Tower of Mom‘s Artistic and Literary making.  When the Church doors were open, we were there.  So, for the most part, my Sisters and I were UnAware of many of the harsher Realities of the World.”

“I had a naturally Curious and Adventurous Nature, and a tendency to be Rebellious.  But I also wanted to be a Good Girl, so I was always torn in half about how to respond or whether or not I should respond at all to many of the things taking place and going on around me.”

“Yes, but why didn’t you continue to pursue Music ?”

“Well, the Music Industry is tough.  Especially if you’re a single woman without a Male figure to help protect and manage you through it.”

“How so ?”

“This is interesting timing, because I have been following the news regarding Senator Gillibrand’s book which reveals the misogynistic behaviors of many of the politicians she has had to work with in Washington, and elsewhere.”

“In her book, she doesn’t reveal names, but tells little stories about how politicians objectified, and in many instances treated her with a genuine lack of Respect and Dignity, because she was a woman.  Particularly, after she gained a little weight due to her pregnancy.”

“I’ve been really surprised by how many men, and women alike, have criticized her, and told her that she just needs to ‘Move On and Do Your Job’.” 

“Anyways, the Music Industry is filled with those sorts of negative behaviors.”

“One of the many experiences that I had with that part of being in a male dominated industry occurred in Nashville, Tennessee, when my Sisters and I were in the Recording Studio that Porter Wagner and Dolly Parton made famous, putting together our first Record to be hyped and played nationwide on a successful Indy label.”

“I really liked our producer, whose name shall remain undisclosed, and his German girlfriend who had shown the girls and I all around Nashville, because we had all hit it off together.”

“He had gotten us a gig at the Grand “Ole Opry’s Gospel Hour, and during one of our performances we were even able to sing one of my original songs, ”Mend My Heart With Your Love Song”, on that very auspicious stage.  We made Family History.  My grandparents, who lived in the Appalachians, had raised my mom and all of her brothers and sisters on the weekly Grand “Ole Opry’s Radio Show.  So, it was an honor and a joy for us to be able to perform there.”

“He also got us onto the Tennessee Jamboree television show, and a concert at the Blue Bird Café, and some other local performances and television gigs.  So, we were pleased and excited to have him at the helm.”

“So, what went wrong ?”

“Well, Life got in the way.  One of my sisters got pregnant, another got divorced.  All of those things have a way of taking the steam out of people for awhile even under the best of conditions.  But as for me, it was the evening I  stayed over at the studio to watch how our producer mixed our first release, “Take the Keys to My Heart and Drive Me Crazy”.”

“It was about two o’clock in the morning, and everyone else wanted to get back to the hotel to get some shut-eye.  But I was too excited about the processes of what we were creating, and wanted to learn all about how a producer put a Song Recording together.  So, I stayed behind, with the understanding that our producer would drive me to the hotel my mom and sisters and I were staying at when he was done working for the evening.”

“I truly love Learning new things all of the time, and did not stop to think of what I might be inviting.  After a couple of hours into the work session with the Recording, my producer said that he wanted to show me something.”

“We had been laughing and joking around all evening, and he had taught me a lot about the machinery he worked with, so I didn’t think twice about doing as he requested.  He took me back into one of the sitting rooms that had a large couch, and some other furnishings. “

“The next thing I know he’s telling me that his German girlfriend, that my sisters and I all liked, had an Open Relationship with him.  I did not know exactly what that meant, and did not want to embarrass myself by guessing wrong.  And while I was quickly trying to figure out just what an Open Relationship was, he then told me that she had been feeding him special Herbs that made his semen taste wonderful.”

“I was appalled.  I was shocked wide awake.  I realized that I had privately finally guessed right about what an Open Relationship was.  I could not believe that he had just revealed that part of his, and his German Girlfriend’s, Private Life to me.  Also, I was not used to discussing men’s semen.  Much less the taste of it, and with a man I barely knew, and up until that very moment, had Respected and Trusted.”

“The next thing I knew, he flopped down onto the couch and unzipped his britches revealing his genitalia, and he very nonchalantly asked me if I would like to taste it.”

“I felt like a Deer caught in some Hunter’s Crosshairs.”

“Then he tells me that if I become his part-time Lover that his German girlfriend won’t care, and that he’ll foot the bill for our second release, another one of my original songs, “If the Right One Comes Along You’ll Know It”.”

“My mind was racing a million miles an hour.  I kept thinking, ”What is wrong with this very inappropriate, egotistical and idiotic creep ?  All I want to do is Sing and Write Songs, and he wants me to make an Herbal Milkshake with him, and more than once.”

“Well, I wasn’t having any of it.  In fact, his violation of our relationship so upset me, that I accidentally projectile vomited all over his shoes and the bottom of his britches.”

“He hopped off of that couch faster than a grasshopper, cussing up a blue streak.”

“I just kept apologizing profusely, and telling him that the barbeque we had eaten earlier had not really agreed with me, because of all of the excitement of working with him, and the other guys at the studio.”

“I told him that all I really needed was sleep, and after helping him to get cleaned up, and washing out my own mouth and clothing, I finally coaxed him into taking me on back to the hotel room without our mixing up an Herbal Milkshake together.”

“Well, needless to say, we never got our second recording done, even though our very first Indy recording went all the way to number two on some of the national Indy charts, and into the top twenty-five in the overall National charts.”

“I never told mom and the girls about what had happened, because I felt strangely and ambiguously guilty about our not getting the second recording done.  We had used all of our pooled resources to pay for everything we had done in the music and in Nashville up to that point.  And all I would have had to have done is make an Herbal Milkshake with a creepy producer, and we could have moved forward with our efforts in the Music more.”

“But I could not bring myself to become an Herbal Milkshake Maker - an Herbal Milkshake Maid, just to move further along in the Music Industry.  So, I just decided to Move On and Do Other Jobs.  In actuality, I’ve always viewed everything I’ve ever done as a Vocation.  A Calling of sorts.  I don’t think that I’ve ever really just had a Job.”

“So, there you have it.  I have had a lot of Vocations throughout my Life, and truly enjoyed and loved each one of them for a Variety of Reasons.  I do not see making a lot of money as a measure of success.  I see that as an ability for successful Accumulation.  I have always Chosen to Accumulate other things, much to the chagrin of those who care about me.  I guess, in a capitalistic society that makes me a Successful Failure to some, and a Failed Success to others.  Oh well,  Que sera, sera.”