Part 1

            Good morning Central Kansas and around the world!  Thank you for joining us this first Sunday of the beautiful month of December as we are into the shopping days for the birthday of Jesus.  Welcome to MATT.  Get set for the top 10 songs of our area right now as determined by the research from your requests, as well as the research of Mediabase 24-7 for the reporting date of this Sunday, December 3, 2023 and get ready for some top 10 songs of the past as well.  I am Fr. Mike, and you have your dial set to today’s best music Mix 103, the number one popular music station in Central Kansas.  You spend time with us every Sunday morning, and you not only will know the top 10, but you will know their meanings as well.  And with a little bit of help, those meanings will help shape our lives to be a little better than they are already.  This morning we have songs by some really good artists like Jelly Roll, the band Fun. and John Mellencamp among 19 others.  We will talk a little about hope today.

            And the reason is the latest song from Billie Eilish.  It has a great video to it which Eilish directed herself.  In my opinion, it is the thought of a person growing up in a world that sometimes is too complicated.  “I used to float,” she sings, “now I just fall down.  I used to know, but I’m not sure now.  What was I made for?  Takin’ a drive, I was an ideal, looked so alive, turns out I’m not real.  I don’t know how to feel, but I wanna try.  Someday I might.”  And she closes the song in a hopeful manner: “Think I forgot how to be happy, something I’m not, but something I can be, something I’m made for.”  So, her answer to the question of her song: what was I made for?—to be happy.  That is a hopeful statement because as we strive for happiness, we will see—as she says, that it is something we’re made for.

            Some thoughts on hope.  They come from a man by the name of Phil Steiger, a pastor in Colorado Springs from his Blog site.  “I have recently gone through a period without a job,” he writes, “and I am still in a kind of ‘holding pattern’ waiting for a handful of things to take place which will go a long way toward fulfilling my personal dreams.  As part of the process I went through during that time, I reflected on the virtue of hope.  We hear a lot about faith and love, but we rarely hear about hope.  Hope is an interesting virtue in that it is only needed, and we only really get a chance to exercise it, when we least feel like being hopeful.  We can certainly hope when all looks positive and the world is all as it should be, but that is not the virtue of hope.  The virtue of hope is worked in us when we need to place all our hope in God and God’s benevolence when there is nothing else in which to hope.  We only truly know that God is our only hope when we have been sufficiently disconnected from the things of this world that vie for our hopefulness.”

            That’s a really good statement about the situation of hope.  Hope happens, he says, when we finally realize that we will accomplish nothing without God being part of our lives.  Of course, that is from a believer’s point of view, and I happen to agree with it, of course.  But whether you are a believer or not, we will want to look at the world with the hope that things will be better in those areas which need help.  As Billie Eilish sings, “it is something I’m made for.”

            This is a song from the movie “Barbie” soundtrack, Billie Eilish singing, “What Was I Made For?,” number 5, good song on MATT.

(double)    5 WHAT WAS I MADE FOR? / Billie Eilish

                               BAD GUY / Billie Eilish

Part 2

            Double Billie Eilish there, that last one, her song “Bad Guy” from 2019 from her album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”  The song is a very different sounding song with a message of the woman in the relationship taking advantage of the man in a way.  “So, you’re a tough guy,” the lady in the relationship sings, “like-it-really rough guy, just can’t get enough guy, chest-always-so puffed guy.  I’m that bad type, make-your-mama sad type, make-your-girlfriend-mad type.  I’m the bad guy.”  The message of the song seems to revolve around the fact that the lady is the type of person that can make him change his mind.  In terms of our theme which she gave us, from her point of view anyway, she is hopeful that she can do it.

            Right back into our top 10 we go, and go to number 3 and a song about a relationship that started at a party, he says, where he saw a girl who stood out from other girls in his mind, but her friends didn’t approve, and finally after a while they got together.  He begins the song “Baby, calm down, girl, your body is put in my heart for lockdown.  You sweet like Fanta.  If I tell you, say, ‘I love you’, you know they tell me ‘no.’ Finally, I find way to talk to the girl but her friends gum up the meeting like chewing gum.”  And she says, “Yeah, I know I look shy but for you I get down.”  As we think about our theme today, he sings with hope because it looks like the relationship will work out.  Number 3 from Nigerian singer Rema’s album “Rave and Roses” and singing with him, Selena Gomez, former number 1, “Calm Down” on MATT. 

(triple)       3 CALM DOWN / Rema & Selena Gomez

                   EASY ON ME / Adele

                   WE FOUND LOVE / Rihanna

Part 3

            Last year’s halftime Super Bowl star Robyn Rihanna Fenty or simply Rihanna, from her album “Talk That Talk,” and her song “We Found Love” on MATT.  On the album, the lady in the relationship begins this song with the statement of the problem: “It’s like you’re screaming, and no one can hear.  You almost feel ashamed that someone could be that important; that, without them, you feel like nothing.”  And the lyrics of the song say the same thing a little more poetically: “Yellow diamonds in the light.  Now we’re standing side by side, as your shadow crosses mine, what it takes to come alive.  It’s the way I’m feeling, I just can’t deny, but I’ve gotta let it go.  We found love in a hopeless place.”  She doesn’t explain why she has to let it go, but my guess is that it was a relationship that was totally unhealthy, and so my theme on my website reads: “Some relationships are not healthy, and should be abandoned”, and with our theme today, it is hopeful in the sense that we can always begin again.

            Before her, we heard the winner of the Best Pop Solo Performance on the Grammys last year, from her Grammy nominated album “30”, a song inspired according to her by her divorce, “Easy on Me,” Adele Laurie Blue Adkins or simply Adele.  She sings, “There ain’t no gold in this river that I’ve been washing my hands in forever.  I know there is hope in these waters, but I can’t bring myself to swim.  When I am drowning in this silence, let me in.  Go easy on me, I was still a child, didn’t get the chance to feel the world around me.  I had no time to choose what I chose to do, so, go easy on me.  There ain’t no room for things to change when we are both so deeply stuck in our ways.  You can’t deny how hard I have tried.  I changed who I was to put you first, but now I give up, go easy on me.”  She sings “I know there is hope in these waters,”—“hope” being our theme today, the waters being the thought of staying together, but she has to do some work to get there.

            Every song has a message, and that is what we are all about here on MATT—discovering the messages located in the songs, and with our theme today, where does hope fit in?  Our excellent lead song came Billie Eilish and a great question: What Was I Made For?”  I’m Fr. Mike inviting you to stay with us.  After a short break, we will continue to learn from the songs of our show.  We need these breaks so that we can thank our sponsors from time to time.  Let me take you to that break with a thought from my quote book, and it is marked anonymous: “It is just as easy to expect the best as to look for the worst.”  That is pretty good and if we really know it, we will be hopeful people.  Your dial is set for learning, media-style by popular music—Mix 103 and you are listening to “Message at the Top”.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Part 4

            You, my friends, are in tune with MATT, your top 10 show of the best mix of music around these parts, Mix 103.  We call our show MATT because we take the top 10 songs of our area, and study their messages in the hopes that our lives that are often so complicated because of our lifestyles, those lives can be better by using the messages of the songs that we play.  I’m Fr. Mike, your host, and it is great to have you with us this first Sunday of December.  The theme that we are using today came from the song “What Was I Made For?” from Billie Eilish and the theme we are using is the idea of hope.

            We begin this segment with a double play, and the double play begins with a song about the negatives of a person’s life, and the desire to get rid of them.  The video acts it out very well.  “I have this thing where I get older, but just never wiser” she sings.  “Midnights become my afternoons when my depression works the graveyard shift.  All of the people I’ve ghosted stand there in the room.  I should not be left to my own devices; they come with prices and vices, I end up in crisis, I wake up screaming from dreaming.  One day I’ll watch as you’re leaving ‘cause you got tired of my scheming.  It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.”  And some great words in the song with the story of a life gone bad because of “the monster on the hill” as she calls her bad self, the self who is causing the problems.  Without actually saying it, although it is clear from the song, I believe: she teaches us that we are the ones who are making bad choices, and that will bring about real hope in our lives once we realize it.  Taylor Swift for the first time this morning and her former number 1, from her album “Midnights,” her song “Anti-Hero,” number 9 this week on MATT. 

(double)    9 ANTI-HERO / Taylor Swift

                   COLD WATER / Major Lazer f/ Justin Bieber &MO

Part 5

            A song that says that we can always help others if we want to.  MATT presenting there the trio Major Lazer, featuring Justin Bieber & Danish singer Karen Marie Orsted Anderson better known as MO, singing “Cold Water” from 2016 from Major Lazer’s album “Major Lazer Essentials” on MATT.  They sing that we can give lifelines that save others if we want to.  Both the man and the woman in the song are singing that they are there for each other, phrasing it “I won’t let go; I’ll be your lifeline tonight.”  The man sings: “And if you feel you’re sinking, I will jump right into cold water for you.”  And she sings, “I’m all alone, and I hope someone’s gonna take me home.”  It is the man in the relationship who is showing the friendship and the woman seems to accept it.  Giving another “lifelines” is a good thought and it is a good habit to fall into, and if we do, we will be hopeful people.

       Our first hour together closes with a triple and the triple begins with the number 10 song right now.  It has a great sound.  He told Billboard magazine that it is meant to be a good time.  He said he was stressed out when he wrote the song.  “I think,” he says, “what makes the song special is the fact that so many of us are ready to just forget about whatever is happening around us and enjoy the good things in life—not just thinking back to good times in the past but creating new ones in the present day.”  So, it is a feel good song that unfolds the tale of looking to have a good time with friends.  He is yearning for romance even as the person he is thinking of is spoken for.  So, that is the meaning of the words, but probably what is most important is that the song brings about a good feeling.  And that is always a very hopeful thing, our theme today.  Interesting song and our theme next week from American rapper and singer Paul Russell and his catchy song “Lil Boo Thang”, number 10 on MATT. 

(triple)     10 LIL BOO THANG / Paul Russell

                   COME ON GET HIGHER / Matt Nathanson

                   8 DIAL DRUNK / Noah Kahan & Post Malone

Part 6

            Our theme last week when we spoke of pain, as that song does from Noah Kahan and Austin Richard Post, better known as Post Malone and their song “Dial Drunk” from Kahan’s album “Stick Season” number 8 on MATT.  The story in song is that the man in the relationship is still hanging on to the relationship even though it is over.  He is guilty of a DUI, and has given to the police her number to call, and she won’t answer.  Pretty tough situation.  “I’m remembering I promised to forget you now,” they sing, “but it’s raining, and I’m calling drunk.  I don’t like that when they threw me in the car, I gave your name as my emergency phone call.  It rang and rang even the cops thought you were wrong for hanging up.  I dial drunk, I’ll die a drunk, I’d die for you.”  And a line that says it all, I believe: “I’m untethering from the parts of me you’d recognize and the dial tone is all I have.”  Some real pain sung about there.  And in terms of our theme, there is no hope unless he is willing to give up the relationship and start over.

            Before them, we heard from Matt Nathanson, and his song “Come On Get Higher” from his album “Some Mad Hope” from 2010.  The word “high” is an interesting word in the English language.  It can be used in contexts that vary greatly: from a feeling that one gets from some chemical substance to a feeling that comes from discovering something great.  Matt Nathanson uses the word to signify a desire for love.  The person in his song is separated from the person he loves.  He sings: “I miss the sound of your voice, and I miss the rush of your skin, and I miss the still of the silence as you breathe out and I breathe in.  Come on, get higher, loosen my lips; faith and desire and the swing of your hips.  Just pull me down hard and drown me in love.”  He wants to feel higher by being drowned in love.  One of the ways to feel a lot of hope, our theme today, is to also have a lot of love.

            And we have played our way to a brief pause.  In our next half-hour beginning our second hour, get ready for music from / in order of appearance Luke Combs, John Mellencamp, Taylor Swift again, Jelly Roll, Howie Day, and the duo MKTO.  Leading us into our break, here is a thought from author Michael Angier: “Recognize that everything you do, every step you take, every sentence you write, every word you speak—or don’t speak—counts.  Nothing is trivial.  The world may be big, but there are no small things.  Everything matters.”  That is a pretty good thought, and if everyone of us understood it, we might have a little more hope in our world.  I’m Fr. Mike for “Message at the Top”.  Don’t even think about touching that dial…please!

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Part 7

            We are back, as we celebrate the first Sunday of December together, what the Christian world calls the First Sunday of Advent as we prepare for Christmas.  I hope today is a good one for you.  This is “Message at the Top”.  I’m Fr. Mike, ready to begin our second hour together and lead you without interruption through another 30 minutes of music and message today, and all of our songs this morning are working on a theme which asks the song about how hope fits into its meaning.

            As promised, we go to our top 10 to number 7 and a song that has been around our top 10 for quite a while, another story in song without a happy ending.  It is a story that comes from Ms. Tracy Chapman and a 1988 song, and its title is the symbol of what many believe to be the answer to happiness, a fast car.  Ultimately, it is a song about a life that didn’t work out the way the person wanted.  In the story, she wants to have “a feeling that I belonged” as she says.  And so, she sets out to fulfill that ambition.  She believes the feeling of “being someone” can be accomplished by the fast car.  But she changed her mind when she discovered that her family needed her; a good ideal didn’t last.  And the song closes without her having accomplished her goals, and still looking to be someone.  So, the story of someone who never quite made it for her to “be someone.”  There is pain in her life, and it seems as though it is her own doing.  There is hope, our theme today, in the sense that she still has time to discover how to “be someone”.  It is the number 7 song on our top 10 chart right now from his album “Gettin Old”, Mr. Luke Combs, former number 1 and his song “Fast Car” on MATT.

(triple)       7 FAST CAR / Luke Combs

                               CRUMBLIN’ DOWN / John Mellencamp

                               4 CRUEL SUMMER / Taylor Swift

Part 8

            The very popular Ms. Taylor Swift, two songs in our top 10, this time from her album “Lovers”, the name of the song, “Cruel Summer” number 4 on MATT.  The song tells us that we really have to work at a relationship, and if we don’t, it will lead to some tough times.  “Fever dream high in the quiet of the night,” she begins the song, “You know that I caught it.  Bad boy, killing me slow, out the window, I’m always waiting for you to be waiting below. Devils roll the dice; angels roll their eyes.  What doesn’t kill me makes me want you more.  I’m drunk in the back of the car and I cried like a baby coming home from the bar; said, ‘I’m fine,’ but it wasn’t true; I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you.  Oh, it’s a cruel summer.  He looks up grinning like the devil.”  In terms of our theme today, as we work out a relationship, it has to begin somewhere, and the couple can have some hope that things will work out for them in the future.

            Before her, we went back to the 80’s, 1983 to be exact, and a song from John Mellencamp from his album “The Best That I Could Do 1978-1988” and his song “Crumblin’ Down”.  The person in the song is an angry person, I think.  He’s been ignored and been a whippin’ boy—as he sings.  It seems that he once was happy with what he did and accomplished, and then all of a sudden, now he is not accomplishing, and his image is falling: “Now some people don’t want to treat me the same,” he sings.  “The walls are tumblin’ down, the walls are crumblin’”.  The person in the song needs some hope in his life, our theme today, and if he doesn’t get it, there is little doubt that his life will not be happy. 

            We go to our top 10 once again, this time to a song about prayer.  Speaking the truth of so many people, it says: “I only talk to God when I need a favor, and I only pray when I ain’t got a prayer.  So, who the heck am I to expect a Savior if I only talk to God when I need a favor.  But God I need a favor!  I know Amazing Grace, but I ain’t been livin’ them words.  Swear I spend most Sundays drunk than I have in church.  Hard cover King James only been savin’ dust on the nightstand, and I don’t know what to say the time I fold my hands.  I only talk to God when I need a favor.”  I changed some of the words.  In terms of our theme today, there seems to be real hope in the song since he seems to be realizing what he is doing.  This is a 10+ song on our charts now at number 2 and a former number 1 from Jason Bradley DeFord better as Jelly Roll, and his excellent song from his latest album “Whitsitt Chapel,” the song “Need a Favor” on MATT. 

(triple)     2 NEED A FAVOR / Jelly Roll

                   COLLIDE / Howie Day

                   CLASSIC / MKTO

Part 9

            An American duo formed in Los Angeles, Malcolm Kelley and Tony Oller, or their first initials, their official name MKTO from their album named after them, and their song “Classic” on MATT.  It is a happy song mixing classic people like Prince, Marvin Gaye and Frank Sinatra into the thought of someone who is classic to the man in the relationship.  “Girl, you’re shining like a 5^th avenue diamond and they don’t make you like they used to.  You’re never going out of style.  You’re over my head, I’m out of my mind, thinking I was born in the wrong time, one of a kind, living in a world gone plastic.  You’re so classic, you’re so classic.”  He is totally enamored with the girl, and that is good of course, but their commitment could be too soon.  But he is saying that he is ready to spend time with her, and therefore reason to hope that the commitment will last, “hope” being our theme today.

            Before them, we went back to 2005, and heard from Howie Day from his album “Stop All The World Now,” and his song “Collide”.  “Even the best fall down sometimes,” Howie Days sings, “Even the wrong words seem to rhyme; out of the doubt that fills my mind, I somehow find / you and I collide.  I’ve found I’m scared to know I’m always on your mind.”  He is singing that even though things don’t always seem to work out, somehow they do for people who are in love—they collide into life and love.  I love happy endings, and it is a happy ending.  And happy endings lend the couple to real hope that the commitment will always be there.  

            We will continue to listen to our top 10 in just a few minutes.  Our theme is the idea of discovering how hope fits into the essence of the song.  Get ready for a final segment that will give us among others Ms. Dua Lipa and Ms. Ellie Goulding, along with the number 1 song in our country right now.  First, here is a very practical thought from Albert Einstein, not only a brilliant man, but a very wise man with regard to just thinking clearly: “Not everything that counts can be counted, / and not everything that can be counted counts.”  Important to remember this time of year, I believe, and that man always gave us lessons that we should learn.  My name is Fr. Mike; this show is MATT; this station is the Mix, and we’ll be right back!

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Part 10

            Every song has a message, and most of the time that message will help our lives.  Such is our thought as we continue on MATT on Mix 103.  Welcome back to the show that gives you the top 10 of today and yesterday along with their messages.  We call it MATT.  I’m your host, Fr. Mike, and we have taken off from a song from Billie Eilish and we’re talking about hope.  And some great songs in front of us right now, the first three of which are spotlighting Ms. Ellie Goulding.

            She is a 36-year-old singer/songwriter born in England.  Her accolades are many, among them being three Brit awards including the prestigious BRIT Billion award, Billboard music awards, and two Grammy nominations.  She has sold more than 27 million albums and 216 million singles and recognized to be one of the most successful British female singers of the 21^st century.

            Her first song of the triple dedicated to her is a song about desiring the love of another.  “It’s the strangest feeling,” she sings, “Feeling this way for you.  There’s something in the way you move.  With you I’m never healing; it’s heartache through and through.  Don’t know what it is you do.  When our eyes meet, I can only see the end, but tonight I’m here, yours again.  There’s an evil night air, the stars don’t shine tonight.  Something in the way you push me closer, further, break me just enough.  Your lies always seem so true.  There’s nothing left for me to lose.  There’s not one thing I can do to change your ways, but I can’t sit back and take the lonely days.”  The lady in the song wants the good feeling of being with her friend, but it probably won’t come because her friend is using her, and there will be very little hope for this relationship unless they do some strong communication, “hope” being our theme today.  From her album “Delirium,” this is Ellie Goulding and her song, “Something in the Way You Move” from 2015 on MATT.

(triple)       SOMETHING IN THE WAY YOU MOVE / Ellie Goulding

                               OUTSIDE / Calvin Harris f/ Ellie Goulding

                   CLOSE TO ME / Ellie Goulding f/ Diplo & Swae Lee

Part 11

            A top 10 song from 2019 from Ellie Goulding, Diplo and Swae Lee, and their song “Close to Me” on MATT.  It is a song of really wanting someone special to be close to someone, and not accepting anyone else.  “We know that we’ll be alright,” they sing, “So don’t let me down, keep me in trouble, born to be wild out in the jungle, And I don’t want to be somebody without your body close to me, and if it wasn’t you, I wouldn’t want anybody close to me.  ‘Cause I’m an animal, an animal like you.”  In terms of our theme of hope, there is certainly hope that this commitment will last from the lady’s point of view, but his point of view is important as well.

            Before them, we heard from Adam Richard Wiles, better known as British performer Calvin Harris with our featured performer Ellie Goulding again and it came from Calvin Harris’ album “Motion,” and their song “Outside” from the year 2014.  It is a song sung after a breakup.  “Look at what you’ve done,” she sings, “Stand still, falling away from me.  When it takes so long, fire’s out, what do you want to be?  Now I’m holding on, myself was never enough for me.  Gotta be so strong; there’s a power in what you do.  Now every other day I’ll be watching you.  I’ll show you what it feels like; now I’m on the outside.  We did everything right.  Now I’m on the outside.  So, you give me no reason for me to stay close to you.”  It sounds as though even though the break up has occurred, they are both still hanging on.  Now, in terms of our theme, there is a certain hope that they could get back together if they work at the relationship.

            What does our number 6 song say about “hope”?  Well, it is a song about doing something that feels good and not talking about the problems of a relationship, that is in particular, a song about dancing in order to hide problems.  And with that scenario, very little hope unless she wakes up to what she is doing.  “Baby, you can find me under the lights,” she sings, “Diamonds under my eyes.  Turn the rhythm up, don’t you wanna just come along for the ride?  Pull my outfits up tight, you can see my heartbeat tonight.  I can take the heat, best believe, that’s the moment I shine.  ‘Cause every romance shakes and it bends, don’t give a damn.  When the night’s here, I don’t do tears, no chance.  I could dance.  Watch me dance, dance the night away.  My heart could be burning but you won’t see it on my face.  Watch me dance, dance the night away.”  She is dancing instead of facing some problems in her life, and therefore she has to change for the situation to be hopeful.  Another former number 1, from the soundtrack of the record-breaking movie “Barbie”, the second song from that movie today, this is Albanian singer/songwriter Ms. Dua Lipa and the name of her song, “Dance the Night”, number 6 this week on MATT. 

(double)    6 DANCE THE NIGHT / Dua Lipa

                               WE ARE YOUNG / Fun.

Part 12

            They are the band Fun. and their extremely popular song, a grammy award winning Song of the Year and number 1 for a long time, from 2012, “We Are Young” on MATT.  They disbanded a couple of years ago, but may unite again.  They sing the song with Ms. Janelle Monae, American R&B singer/songwriter from right here in the Kansas City area, from Fun.’s album “Some Nights”.  The song is a story of a couple who have had rough times.  The theme I use on my website reflects that: Working out past mistakes is a process that usually takes time and effort.  He was physically abusive to her in the past, and now he’s trying to make up for it.  “I’m trying hard to take it back,” the man in the relationship sings, “so, if by the time the bar closes and you feel like falling down, I’ll carry you home.  Tonight, we are young, so let’s set the world on fire.  We can burn brighter than the sun.  Maybe we could find new ways to fall apart.”  And the lady in the relationship finally agrees, saying, “Carry me home tonight.”  Therefore, the two in the relationship are making up and want to try again.  And if they are going to do that, it should bring a certain amount of hope for their relationship, our theme today, but I’m very quick to say that such a getting back together after some abuse should be very slow, and the couple should be very careful.

          And our number 1 song this week        once again, now for three weeks in a row, is from her album, “Endless Summer Vacation”—digital reissue, Miley Cyrus, “Used to be Young”.  She says of the song: “This song is about honoring who we’ve been, loving who we are and celebrating who we will become.  I feel proud when reflecting on my past and optimistic when thinking about the future.”  So, the past for her is a good thing, and her future is likewise good.  She sings, “The truth is bulletproof.  There’s no fooling you.  I don’t dress the same, me and who you say I was yesterday have gone our separate ways.  Left my living fast somewhere in the past ‘cause that’s for chasing cars, turns out open bars lead to broken hearts and going way too far.  I know I used to be crazy, I know I used to be fun; You say I used to be wild, I say I used to be young.”  She will not look at the past as a negative.  As she says, she simply “took another road.”  In terms of our theme, I look at the song as very hopeful because of her positive attitude toward life, before and after the moment.  Another good song.

            We have talked of that—how “hope” fits into the thoughts of the song.  It came from our lead song today, “What Was I Made For?” from Billie Eilish.  My prayer for you and for me is that we will be people of hope in the sense that we will always work for good things in our lives.  My thanks to our producers and to our sponsors, in particular Holy Family Elementary School, Hays Car and Truck Alignment, and TMP-Marian Junior and Senior High School in Hays.  If you want to contact me by mail, I hope you do so at KJLS-FM, Hays, KS, 67601 or my e-mail address is frmikescully@yahoo.com.  My website is www.frmikescully.com where you will find meditations on these songs and some great movies as well.  Our meditation today is on the song “Close to Me” from Ellie Goulding which we heard as part of her triple play a little earlier.  You can catch us on the web every Sunday morning at 10 as well by tuning to www.hayspost.com and clicking on Mix 103.  Before we listen to the number 1 song in our country and area right now, let me give you another thought for this upcoming week.  It is one that is quoted often and comes from Cheryl Hanson quoting her father Jim Hanson, the Muppets creator, at Hanson’s funeral, and it’s a relatively famous quote: “I believe in taking a positive attitude toward the world.  My hope is to leave the world a little better than when I got here.”  Great thought there, great hope that you and I can easily imitate.  Thank you for the privilege of your time today.  As you listen to the number 1 song from Miley Cyrus and her song “Used to be Young,” may I remind you that you are in tune with today’s best music Mix 103, and our advice, among all the other positive things we have given you today is to hold a good thought.  Speaking from downtown Lawrence, Ks, beautiful in so many ways, my name is Fr. Mike Scully.  I hope your December and holidays are beginning well for you.  Be safe, peace to you, and be good.

1 USED TO BE YOUNG / Miley Cyrus