Ode to the Boombox’s Buttons

After seeing a client in Chinatown a couple of years ago, a window display full of boomboxes at an old-school electronics store on Canal Street stopped me cold.   

Then it hit me, like hearing LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out for the first time - that the boombox’s buttons - Record, Rewind, Play, Fast Forward, Stop and Pause - represent the toggled states of where my mind tends to uncontrollably wander and cycle through daily.  

My mind’s boombox buttons shifted to rewind and to April 12th, 2019, the last day with my company I called home for over a decade. And a place that reliably directly deposited my check bi-weekly. It was the same day that we - the company and I - celebrated birthdays. And, it also was the day that the AARP packet came in the mail.

The next month, I started my own shop. Since then, pushing play is where life needs to be. But sometimes moving forward is hard to reach.

Looking through the window

of a vintage electronics store

Tending to the moment at hand, with focus and precision, can become tenuous or fleeting.  

Sometimes, it’s hard to zero in on the task at hand. Your mind drifts and races and backpedals.

But life doesn’t have a rewind button.  Hitting it, and becoming regretful about what you should have done, doesn’t always turn out so well. 

Nor does too much fast forwarding, where extending too far out to plan for what may never come. 

Maybe if we could regulate the fast forward button to slow it down some, in order roll out or adapt to things more thoughtfully or intentionally.

Now, pause, record and stop have its merits - and applications. 

Take a well-deserved time out and pause the action.  Or stop altogether and take a longer, more intentional break.  

Life does not have a rewind button.

Only rewind if you’re going to hit record and playback what has occurred.  At your own speed, and dissect, like game film, what has taken place so you can anticipate the next play. 

If I were to associate a word for each boombox button, it would be: 

Play - Focus

Pause - Break 

Stop - Regroup

Record  - Learn  

Fast Forward - Plan 

Rewind - Regret 

If you need to prioritize Pause and Stop more than Play and Fast Forward, then do so. The key is, to restart, do next [something my dad used to say a lot] and continue to hit play. Four years later, I’m doing just that.