Know the song?   I remember the Doris Day original, and lately it seems the song is making a comeback by someone or a band called Pink Martini.   I’ve heard it quite a few times in Starbucks and it brings back memories of a time gone by when things were easy, sweet and innocent.  And as I sat listening to the song today it occurred to me – I hate this song.

“When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother
What will I be?
Will I be pretty?
Will I be rich?
Here’s what she said to me:

Que sera, sera.
Whatever will be, will be.
The future’s not ours to see.
Que sera, sera.
What will be, will be.”

No seizing the day or climbing the corporate ladder for this young lass.   She’ll be living her life waiting for it (life) to happen to her.

Living your life as a practice requires completely the opposite perspective.  A carpe diem approach where you invent your future and spend your days in the pursuit of making it happen.  The song of course has a very peaceful and even helpful message of acceptance for what occurs, and this is fine.   Sung as an unconscious refrain though, it comes across as complete and final, like there is nothing else to it, and I think that’s why I find it irritating.

I could practice acceptance for this song and let go of my irritation – I could, but I won’t.  I don’t like it.  So there.  😉   I never said I was perfect.

“The future is not someplace we’re going, but someplace we’re creating, and the paths to it are not found, but made; and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.”   Peter Ellyard.