We all need a little help in life, right? If you answered yes, why not take your advice from a sage like Jimmy Buffett? He’s got tons of advice on how to handle relationships, life on the beach, people, and what you should put on your cheeseburger to make it absolutely perfect even if you can't find your lost shaker of salt. Sadly, his music is dismissed by many but he’s got some good stuff going on.
Jimmy Buffett got his start playing at a young age and kept it up into his years at Southern Miss (SMTTT!), where he was a member of Kappa Sigma, earned a history degree, and met one of the founding members of his Coral Reefer Band, Fingers Taylor. The two met one night when Buffett was playing songs to a few women in the Hub between their night classes. Taylor, a harmonica player, happened to walk by, enjoying what he heard. He decided to sit in and the relationship grew from there. But the laid back, “island escapism” theme much of his catalogue reflects stems from his time growing up on the Gulf Coast and learning to sail with his grandfather.
Thankfully, he transferred more than just his mad cheeseburger making abilities into his music, giving us some of his most valuable life advice.
1. “If we didn’t laugh, we would all go insane”
A timeless, priceless piece of advice from one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs, “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.” Besides being a good tool for teaching junior high students how to remember the difference between longitude and latitude, this song reminds us that we all need a little RnR and some good times to keep from going grey too soon. Just imagine life without laughter….scary, right? Then if nobody ever smiled? Geez, we’d definitely all look insane or like Grumpy Cat.
2. It’s not really a song if it doesn’t have saxophones.
Nope, it’s not! According to Mr. Buffett, every song needs a little sax to give it that extra oomph and make it suitable for Mobile, Alabama DJ’s. This one doesn’t exactly fall under the life advice category but you can find a way to make it work for you. For instance, to me, life isn’t the same without music; I listen to it all the time and start to feel weird when I don't have a chance to listen to something for a while. Even when I don’t have a set of headphones, I find myself singing one part of some song in my head until it goes away. When you think about, music is all around us, in TV commercials, the radio, when you’re in an elevator or store, or quietly in the movie background or a restaurant.
3. “I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead”
Wouldn’t you rather die doing something adventurous and spontaneous rather than go sitting in a cubicle with your eyes glued to a computer? Similarly, the best life is had while your heart is still beating and you’re still breathing in hopefully fresh air. From his song, “Migration,” this line always reminds me to live with no regrets, to make my life as full as possible in whatever amount of time I have here. I think all of us should remember that more often instead of always trying to be the “good kids” our parents expect us to be. Sometimes, you just need to take chances and be young, wild, and free, even once you’re older.
4. Knowing it’s 5 o’clock somewhere is always a reason for a drink.
I can’t count on one hand how many times I’ve heard somebody say this on slow afternoons at work. Knowing it’s 5 o’clock in some time zone definitely makes for a very valid reason to have a drink in the middle of the day. If Europeans can have a pint or two at lunch, what’s to stop us from having a beer or rum and coke at lunch if we want one? Screw social propriety and do what you want!
5. “There’s a little bit of fruitcake left in every one of us”
One of his crazier songs that starts off with a spoken portion detailing a conversation about humans with his friend, Desdemona, down at the space station bake shop. She says, “the cosmic bakers took us out of the oven a little to early and that’s the reason we’re as crazy as we are.” It’s true, we’re all a little “half-baked” upstairs. But life is better when you’re a little crazy, you laugh a lot more. Even the people who claim they’re “sane” are crazy in their own special way; usually those super normal, cookie-cutter type people are the ones you should watch out for. Take Dexter for example; he was a closet serial killer for years. Being too serious all the time isn’t good for your health. Let your freak flag fly every now and then.
6. “We are the people our parents warned us about”
Remember those people your parents told you would be the ones you didn’t want to get mixed up with and that you wouldn’t be too fond of later on in life? Yea, that’s us. We may not realize it now, but give it another few years once we’ve all settled into life beyond college, we’ll realize our generation really is the group of people they were warning us about all along. More seriously, one day very soon it will be our turn to step into our elders’ shoes and begin leading the world. That’s a pretty scary thought when you remember some of the people you’ve known in your life. I’m just crossing my fingers we can keep this country together.
7. “I don’t know where I’m gonna go when the volcano blows”
Make the volcano a metaphor for the presidential election or the apocalypse and you have an equally anxiety-inducing predicament. There are many people I know who have jokingly threatened to leave the country if Trump or Hilary is elected, myself included. I’m pretty sure the rest of the world is laughing at our current situation, taking bets on how long it takes the winner to get impeached. If it’s a life goal to hop across the pond, there’s no better time than the present, right? If not, then hey, we’re all in this mess together; we might as well stick together now. There are plenty of places to go if circumstances suddenly require uprooting yourself. But the fact of the matter is there’s no better place than home, unless you’re trying to escape hot lava or, more realistically these days, flood waters. In that case, run and find higher ground.
8. “You need a holiday”
Don’t we all? The king of beach life always suggests taking time to get away and stick your toes in the sand or whatever you desire on your holiday. Americans are notorious for working 24/7 and never taking or having the ability to take a true vacation. Working all the time wears on you and will turn all your hair grey before you’re of age. Moral of the story: take a holiday and get some rest. You know you want one and you more than likely need one, so just do it!
9. “Take another road”
You could interpret this song several ways but I choose to interpret it to mean something similar to “take the road less traveled;” do your thing and follow your heart, no matter what society tells you to do. Dare to be different, dare to be you.
On a different note, you could interpret it as take another road when the one you’re on isn’t working. If one decision you made led you down a road with more potholes and obstacles than pretty scenery, change it. You are the only one who can control what you do with your life and how you do it, don’t waste that.
10. “Come Monday, it’ll be alright"
You may be thinking, “I beg to differ!” But it really will be okay because every Monday is followed by another Friday….you just have to get through the other four days before you get there. More often than not, it’s those days between the two that are the challenge in making it to the weekend. However, there’s nothing that can stand between you and your weekend. Be like Dory and “just keep swimming,” no matter how severe your case of the Monday’s is.
11. Sometimes, you have to get on the knees of your heart
There are times in life when you royally screw up and have to get down on your knees, or the “knees of your heart,” and beg someone to forgive you, especially if you really care about them. If somebody tells me that they’ve never had to apologize to someone for any reason, I’d want a detailed history of all their interactions with people. We all make mistakes, we all have to accept the consequences, and when applicable, we have to accept the blame and apologize.
12. “I’m growing older, but not up”
Also from his song, “Migration,” this is one thing I want to keep in my heart forever. Nothing makes my heart happier than seeing an elderly person with just as much spunk as a sixteen year old. When you think about it, everything changes as you age, putting a major damper on your spirit and making you that grumpy old person nobody wants to deal with. Instead, as you age, keep some of that youthful spirit inside you, the side that always sees how beautiful life is, even when everything around you seems to change. Be like Jimmy and grow older but not up, keep that youthful spirit as long as you live. You may just live longer, too. Who knows.
