Love And Mercy

Somehow, through a complicated series of events, I've been put in charge of my school's Senior Assembly (the same event that inspired this). I'm more excited than overwhelmed--I haven't directed anything in ten years!

One of my plans is to gently suggest a few songs that vary from the standard graducation fare. This is one of the songs I plan to introduce. Aside from my introduction to the song (on the closing night of National Institute for Teaching Shakespeare, thoughts of grief for life without my dad echoing around in my head), I've recently become fascinated with Brian Wilson. Despite writing all these feel-good, sun and surf songs, his battle with mental illness forced him to hide from the world for some time. I love to listen to his music through this lens, it takes incredible optimism to wish for this world while knowing so personally of its dark opposite.

That's a wish I have for my students. The dark world will rear its ugly head at them sooner or later, and the optimism you find at the end of the darkness is so much sweeter.

What songs would you use for an assembly like this? Upbeat or slow, I'm collecting ideas.