If you're on social media at all, you might notice that things pop up more in your algorithms if the posts have images. Apparently that's what they're teaching journalists these days. Make posts with PICTURES. Nevermind horrible spelling or bad grammar altogether. Just make sure you have pictures, and end with a "call to action." LOL!

Anyway, what's my point? Oh yeah. Months ago, I saw some videos on TikTok with a catchy tune, and I looked up the song. It's "The Show" by Lenka, which she first released in 2008. When I saw the song on Amazon.com, I didn't buy it because it wasn't the same. I couldn't put my finger on it until this morning. I woke up with an earworm, and realized it was Lenka's song "The Show" again. (Does anyone else wake up with ear worms? I do! I get a song in my head, and it won't leave me for the rest of the day, and sometimes several of the following days, if it's REALLY invasive!) I did an internet search, and today I learned the TikTok version is DIFFERENT. It's GEARED for TikTok.

As some of you might know, TikTok is a dance-app (or at least that's what it was intended as), and so the songs that blow up on it are things you can dance to. Well, you can't really jazz dance to the original version of "The Show." So Lenka did what a lot of musical artists are doing -- releasing a modern version specifically in hopes it'll blow up on TikTok. And in the case of Lenka's "The Show" re-mix, it did! (I'll post the two different versions below in the "Author's Notes" for your comparison, if you'd like to listen to them.)

My point is, times change.

Some people write books and songs for themselves. Or maybe their families? But a lot of people write to make money. And if that's the case, then you gotta "read the room," as stand-up comics say. Do they always succeed? No. But people keep trying! Because the other reason people write songs and books is because they want to share their ideas with others.

There's a parable somewhere about a man who wanted to save some birds from a bad winter weather storm by opening up his barn and letting them stay inside until it passed. However, he couldn't get them to overcome their fear of going inside a man-made structure. He felt bad that they'd probably die in the storm and wished he were able to "talk in their language" so he could explain to them what his intentions were.

Honestly, the birds were probably going to be just fine, but suspend disbelief for a moment, because the point of the parable is that if you want to communicate something to someone else, sometimes it's best to learn their language.