Any Way the Wind Blows
Can you do the Fandango?
What if your Queen bee sent you out day after day with one simple direction — collect pollen from thistle.
If you go rogue and return to the hive with orange Marigold dust on your feet, look out — heads will roll! “Thistle I said! Only thistle! Can’t you follow the program? Marigold honey doesn’t sell!”
What a life that would be for a bee.
Some buzzers might revel in the monotony, drinking a cup of honey spiked tea and watching Netflix at day’s end. But…I wonder what would happen if a few experienced Peony nectar collectors started taking blue Salvia guys on the occasional ride along? You know — expand the knowledge, experience and engagement base.
Now we know nature doesn’t work that way! Birds, bees and butterflies flit and flutter — they explore!
Yesterday I went to see Bohemian Rhapsody. Before that, I couldn’t have named a Queen song without a visit to the internet. I surely didn’t know Freddie Mercury began his life as Farrokh Bulsara and if you’d have asked me if he was still alive, I would have answered don’t know with a shrug.
Until yesterday, the song Bohemian Rhapsody was just background noise from my childhood. Today it’s a story that I can use as inspiration. If you plan to see the film and don’t want the story in advance — break away now. All others, I expect you’ll find a bit of wisdom in Queen’s boldness.
One day, Freddie Mercury showed up to rehearsal, pressed play on the tape deck and opera flooded the room. His band mates wondered what he was playing at and shared looks of skepticism, but Freddie Mercury had the charisma to entice his friends to play along. A song was born — thunder bolt and lightening, very, very fright’ning me! Galileo!
The band recorded and presented the epic six minute Bohemian Rhapsody to their label executive. “No way! Too long — over six minutes? No radio station will play it! What even is this? It doesn’t fit the formula. No! You’re under contract to deliver what we ask for.”
In the next scene, we see Freddie Mercury sitting with a deejay who plays the single. Bohemian Rhapsody goes on to become a commercial success, topping the UK singles chart for nine weeks. The track encompassed ballad, opera and hard rock elements.
Queen created something new by mixing elements of disparate musical categories. Fortune follows the bold? In the case of Bohemian Rhapsody — yes. The song could have flopped — but, it didn’t. What’s that they say? Nothing ventured nothing gained?
If we continuously follow someone else’s route, we may eventually lose the ability to map our own way.
In her book The Rise Sarah Lewis said,
I still remember the shudder when I sensed a knowing as sure as fact — that I might only become my fullest self if I explored and stayed open to moving through daunting terrain.
Often, we are our own Queen bee.
C’mon — let’s go sample the Marigolds!
