I was combing through my music collection this morning to figure out what I wanted to listen to while I was working. I sorted the music by album name (I just down loaded a free Celtic album from Amazon that I wanted to listen to first). I got to the greatest hits section and started reading through some of the groups that have greatest hits albums which included: The Move, The Go-Betweens, The Outlaws, The J.B’s – not exactly groups that come to mind when you think of ‘greatest hits.’ So I started thinking about at what point does a group qualify to issue a ‘greatest hits’ album. It’s a two part question a) what is a great hit and b) how many great hits do you have to have to issue an album full? There is a related question as to when do you issue a, ‘greatest hits vol. II’ album as well.
Naturally, I started putting this question in terms of my own life and who am I to be questioning, ‘The Outlaws’ greatest hits album when a poor rendition of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” is about all I would have to offer as my own. But that’s probably not an apt comparison since, ‘The Outlaws’ are professional musicians and I am not. So the appropriate question is what would be my greatest hits and what is my life genre?
As a business administrator – I guess it would have to be addressing the budget crisis of 1991-92 at Roncalli High School, assembling the employee handbook in 1996, and coddling a boss at an undisclosed location who was ready to wield a large metaphorical chainsaw with irreparable legal and financial consequences certain to result. Actually, I made these up mostly because I had to. I don’t know that I have accomplished anything professionally that is worthy of a greatest hits business management album.
How about my hits in my non-professional life? What would my greatest hits album include in this area? Other than the obvious wife/children/faith sorts of things, I am not sure what I would put on the greatest hits of my life album. It is a very interesting question- I will give myself a top 100 billboard hit this week for coming up with the concept of applying a greatest hits album to ones life events. So I got that going for me.
Let’s see what else have I accomplished that I would put on my greatest life hits album? I’ve only had two driving tickets and they were both from very marginal offenses in income generating ‘trap’ situations. A related hit – I’ve never been in a car accident that was due to my fault/driving skills. I get/got good grades. I very seldom miss work. I can name/recognize NBA players from the late 70’s (quite a feather in my cap). I know my states and capitals.
How about you? What would you say your greatest hits are?
