My woman done left and took all the reason I was workin' for.
Johnny Paycheck wrote this song in 1977. It was one among many, but it was his only #1 hit song...by far. It was wildly popular. He once sang it to an audience of prisoners while he, himself, was incarcerated for shooting a man.
Clearly, he was impulsive.
Dacades ago, when I was leading workshops for business groups, I would often empathize the importance of not making emotion based decisions. "Let's don't burn our bridges. Don't sing the Johnny Paycheck song."
But yesterday, my friend Christie reminded me that we need to use our hearts and well as heads to navigate this current time in history. She's right. I tend to lean toward the "head" part. It's difficult for me to relate to highly emotional people. Even when I really, really want to.
But, yes, I agree that we need both. But we don't need to indulge in Johnny's out of control anger. After all, the problem wasn't even about the job. It was because his woman done left.
The other day, while I was walking with a neighbor, she shared her own Johnny Paycheck story. Decades ago, while her husband was hospitalized, a young woman appeared in his room to draw blood. She had great difficulty, jabbing his arm several times prior to finding a vein.
And all the while she was quietly singing the Johnny Paycheck song.
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