No secret, I’m a big music fan, always have been, and have never pigeonholed my musical experiences to one artist or genre and remain open to all music from any artist who has the guts to put something out there for the masses. And every now and then, a song comes along that just strikes a chord in me and Colbie Caillat has struck that chord with her new song and video ‘Try’.
As a woman and a mother, I love the message in this song and will play it for my daughter AND my sons (after Raffi and before Sharon, Lois and Bram, of course). And I’ll talk to them about the song and video, so Ms. M starts to learn that she doesn’t have to TRY to look beautiful, she just IS beautiful and worthy and so that my sons learn that girls and women are NOT the way they look, they are not mascara and lipstick, they are full, complete human beings with so much more to offer than a pretty face and that diminishing a girl’s value based on the way she looks causes her pain and makes her suffer unnecessarily. And so that all of my babies can appreciate that we, as people, all have struggles and want to be accepted just the way we are, just the way we look, whether or not we choose to get all gussied up or opt to just keep it real.
“You don’t have to try so hard/ You don’t have to, give it all away/ You just have to get up, get up, get up, get up/ You don’t have to change a single thing,” Caillat sings in the chorus. “Don’t you like you? ‘Cause I like you.”
Take a look and listen for yourself and see what you think. Does the song speak to you?