Everybody Loves The Sunshine or So I Thought
By N Oji Mzilikazi
November 17, 2011
Anyone fed on 70s soul music would immediately start tapping feet or bobbing heads to singing, the minute the opening synth lines of Roy Ayers – “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” is heard.
Besides being sampled by a number of rappers, Mary J. Blige, the Queen of Hip Hop Soul borrowed and recreated the hook and chorus of “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” as the title track of her certified triple platinum album, “My Life.” It has since become one of her signature songs.
Who wouldn’t love the sunshine? The Biblical telling is that “darkness was upon the face of the deep and God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God called the light Day, and the darkness Night.”
Unfortunately, life unfolding can bend, twist, corrupt and destroy to the point where misery and unhappiness have people unable to recognize the symbolism of the sun’s incessant rise and shine, even after the worst personal or national disasters. So they give in to the darkness of the experienced hurt, pain, loss and betrayal, and become allergic to sunshine.
They hate the world, people, their life and themselves. Negativity, sourness, bitterness and hatred comprise their personality. They have no interesting in letting things go, nor are they willing to have someone in their life that is willing to love all their hurt away.
Their articulation is rooted in pain- both real and imagined. Their concept of light at the end of the tunnel is that of a train coming. They are so comforted by the dark, it is their light.
One can do nothing for such folks other than leave them to God and hope they eventually stumble unto, or feet bring them unto the road to Damascus.
Keep living your life in the sunshine.