Just wondering.

I’m pretty sure my iPod doesn’t talk to me, but here’s a cool story.

NOTE: Please feel free to insert your own cool flashback special effects!

Last night, while working on a final paper I had been working on all day (and prior to yesterday as well), it occurred to me that, if I kept going at the rate I was going, I would never finish the paper.

Just to be clear, I have never EVER pulled an all-nighter. (However, I have pulled a-lot-of-the-nighters.) I was worried that last night was going to be my first all-nighter (and hoping it would be my last).

So it was around midnight that I realized I couldn’t keep this up, and I took a break from writing the paper to floss my teeth (hey, everybody needs a hobby, right?). For a little atmosphere as I flossed, I turned on my iPod shuffle and the following three songs played in this exact order: “Change Your Way” by Randy Newman, “Hayyom [Today]” by Ehud Banai, and “Ye Shall Be Changed” by Bob Dylan.

It was almost as if the iPod was nagging me to take care of myself a bit better at that very moment. It was as if the ancient sage Hillel himself had programmed a playlist on my iPod called “Ve’im lo akhshav, eimatai?” (“If not now, when?”) or “Im eyn ani li, mi li?” (“If I am not for myself, what am I?”).

I felt these sayings from Pirkey Avot 1:14 all shouted out at me by the titles alone of these songs.

Working so tediously under a tight deadline is good for nobody, and if I don’t change now, who will? And how will the paper get done? Randy Newman says, “Change Your Way.” When? Ehud Banai says “Hayyom.” That sounds really daunting. But, look Bob Dylan’s blessing me, saying “Ye Shall Be Changed.” Sweet! I’ma change!

After I finished flossing my teeth, I ran back to the computer and furiously wrote the paper. (By furiously, I mean: I finished it around 6 AM. Trust me: that was an improvement! Things were moving really slowly before…)

I know that the iPod shuffle doesn’t really speak to me. (Right?) But it’s amazing how much a song—even its title—can remind us of the values we keep in the back of our minds. We tend not to take out some of those old tricks and values unless we actively shuffle through our memory.