Embraceable You

‘Embraceable You’ is an old jazz standard that jazz students usually come across in their studies of the great masters.

Have you noticed that a lot of Malaysian songs don’t really approach the subject of embracing? You know, hugging, letting your heart out fully at someone, something.

It’s hard to find lyrics that talk about submission to something, hugging someone, letting your emotions pour out. (Before you guys point out dumb lyrics about “Oh sayang aku cinta pada mu disaksikan bulan bla bla bla”, purleeze. What I’m talking about are lyrics about letting your entire heart out, not declaring love. Those that can’t tell the difference can stop reading right here. Yup, here. I said here.)

Maybe it’s because us Malaysians always “control handsome”. We rarely let our guard down cos it’s “frowned upon”.

But what is all this hoo-ha about?

I think giving your all and yes, letting your feelings get in the way are the basic ingredients of achieving seemingly-impossible things. Put everything into it, man, and miracles usually happen. The list of people who have done seemingly-incredible feats have this trait of “wearing your heart on your sleeve” in their character: Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, even P. Ramlee.

Wouldn’t it be great if everyone put their entire heart and soul into everything they do? Wouldn’t it be great if they were not afraid to get their hearts into the line of fire knowing there is the risk of getting hurt? Wouldn’t it be great that nobody does things because of routine or “it’s a job” but they put everything into it? Even activities like picking up the kids at school?

Putting your heart in it means really living the thing that you do. Old-time marketers call it “living the brand”. I call it………..life.

I think Confucius said it best with this line:

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”

Fight the good fight, people.

Ahmad Izham Omar is an award-winning music producer who occasionally runs music quizzes on his Twitter page @ahmadizhamomar