Special Memory #6
My sister Samantha bought me the greatest birthday gift ever, a Karaoke machine. Little did I know at the time how much that machine would enhance my livelihood.
This was when I was working with the learning disabled at an independent living facility that taught young adults how to perform the normal duties of life, including cooking, cleaning, shopping, and paying bills. We’d gather at one of the resident’s apartments, cook together, and play word games or charades. Rather dull, I was bored stiff and needed to spice things up or bust, but what would I do? Frustrated, I decided to do what I wanted to do. I wanted to sing Karaoke and decided to do a little experiment.
I used to frequent the Karaoke Bars, and heard a lot of rather poor singers, so how worse off could these people be? That was answered on the very first night when I thought a dead cow was somehow singing from beyond! Horrible doesn’t even come close to what they sounded like. But hey, at least I was having some fun.
One of the neighbors complained about our noise – and I don’t blame them one bit, so I reserved the apartment complex’s meeting room, brought all the residents down there with me, and told them the rules. First of all, no negative comments were allowed. If they were to say something negative others could as well, so keep it positive. Second, after the song was completed everybody cheered. The third rule was I could sing anytime I wanted. Hey, I needed to have fun, too.
The meeting room was an instant smash! Even the clients that I had been having a difficult time with began opening up! Suddenly they were happy and had a purpose in their lives. Friday night was Karaoke night and they found ways to push through their mundane life till the last dish was cleaned and then it was a sprint down to the Karaoke room where their fantasies came true.
As a result of the Karaoke singing, the sessions I had with each of them became more open and honest. I learned who was sleeping with who and how alcohol was getting snuck in under my nose.
Karaoke night at this facility became so popular, that even my boss came in a few times but never sang. She said it was like a cattle call, I didn’t push her after that.
After this placement, I was hired to work at the Mental Health Urgent Care, which was a crisis center. Sundays were boring there so I brought the machine in to spice things up. Immediately, I got resistance. Not from the clients but from the staff.
“I have to get drunk before I sing Karaoke,” one said.
“You better go to therapy for that,” I replied while shaking my head. Believe it or not, Karaoke singing can be great sober fun. It was for me and continues to be that way.
When I opened up my residential program in Washington, Karaoke singing became a huge part of it. We had a joke that in order to leave the facility, clients had to sing at least one song. At this facility, all the clients were stuck with me for an entire month or two, so to reward them all for their hard work all week, Karaoke helped them let off some steam. You would think that everybody wanted to be involved, however, there were a few holdouts who would rather isolate themselves than experience my singing “Secret Agent Man.”
One month in particular we had a man, who could barely walk, enter the facility with the use of a cane for support. He was this engineer type who felt that all the emotional work I encouraged him to do was for the birds and Karaoke singing, that was fool hearty and something he’d never do. Then one evening, who came limping up the stairs to my living area was Sourpuss himself, who we called Ebeneezer, bah humbug, Scrooge.
“Ebeneezer Scrooge?” The assembled greeted him in shock.
“Oh my God, I have the perfect song for you to sing,” I handed him the microphone.
“No, I’m just here to watch,” he tried to give the microphone back.
“Well, hold onto it and if you want to sing you can,” I grinned, knowing what was going to happen.
I started playing the song “Born to Be Wild.” How could anybody just sit there and listen to it? And, then it happened. Ebeneezer started belting out the lyrics and we all cheered! The look of amazement on everybody’s faces was incredible!
Yeah, he was converted. Ebeneezer, that night, sang by himself, with the group, and was unhappy when it was time to end for the night.
Ebeneezer ended up using this event as motivation. He began exercising and got inspired by the movie, “The Kid,” where Bruce Willis’ inner child comes to life and suddenly Ebeneezer was into inner child work, too! A true miracle.
At the end of the month, Ebeneezer handed me his walking cane and told me he didn’t need it anymore. He actually hugged me and left a new man, with a strong step, and a song in his heart.
Give Karaoke a try. Shoot, you can even pull up Karaoke songs on YouTube and sing them with friends or your kids. I bought a machine for my brother and his children made costumes, created big performances, and actually sounded really good. I believe it brings out the little kid in us all.
Compassionate Care is Always Available
There are many more tools and strategies you can use in your pursuit of happiness. Here is where we come in. Contact us at Basic Steps Mental Health and let us support and educate you on this journey back to your loving heart center. Imagine living a heart-centered life, regardless of what is happening externally. We’d love to be of help.
For 25 years, Dr. Scott Alpert, the clinical director of Basic Steps Mental Health, has treated over 7,000 people with mental health and addiction problems, using a Psychological approach that mixes and matches ten of the top approaches used in the industry. We are here virtually and in-person to help you get through this COVID-19 pandemic and many other difficulties you may be experiencing.
May you have good mental health.
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