I’m always driving these days.

It’s what I do…drive the mail around…drive these pieces of paper with numbers and letters all over them and bring them to people who might want them.

It is what I do.

It’s what allows me to identify myself as a “mailman”.

Always driving….always listening to music.

The other day, I heard a song that got me thinking.

What I was thinking was that the right song, in the right place, should do everything that needed to be done to get the world on track.

If enough of the people in power heard the right song, in the right context….there’d be no more wars, no need for possesions….all the people, living life…in peace.

When this song came on, I pictured Obama with a boombox, for some reason….

 This is from an Israeli radio station ad…who would have thought there’d be a picture out there like that? I hope they don’t track me down…I never ask permission….

Anyway…I thought of Obama…going for a big meeting with Putin….that Iraq/Iran guy/guys….Afghani….who else? All the folks we worry about…all of them…in one room for a big meeting.

Obama strides confidently to the front of the room…his boombox in his hand….silent, smiling with his eyes… but with a serious and determined look on his face…

He’s by himself…no Secret Service agents…no bodyguards…just a boombox and a plan.

When he gets to the front of this large room filled with allies and enemies, he calmly sets the boombox down on the stage in front of him and presses “PLAY”….the he retreats about 10 paces and waits, head down, for the song to begin.

When the song starts, this is what the room hears….

“Why Can’t We Live Together” Timmy Thomas

The song starts slowly, so the first moments of the exchange are quiet, Obama doing a highly choreographed interpretive dance, each movement a subliminal plea for peace in the world…

Then the vocals kick in after a minute or so…and Obama is lip-syncing perfectly.

IT’S PERFECT…AND THE AUDIENCE GOES WILD!!!

IT’S AN AMAZING AND HEARTFELT PERFORMANCE BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!

When the cheering dies down, and the people are listening again…..they realize something.

They, as a unified group… for the first time bonded by their shared amazement at the spectacle they are witnessing….grow completely silent.

They listen as they realize that Obama isn’t lip-syncing….he’s doing his own vocals…and he’s doing it live!!!

They all stare open-mouthed as this brave man sings a song of peace for the whole world’s benefit.

A funky song of peace….

When the song ends, the room is silent.

The leaders of the world…free and not so free….stare at each other for a quiet moment.

Many different colored eyes meet in recognition.

The leaders of the world….men and women…realize almost simultaneously that they’ve been changed forever by this man and his brave performance of a pertinent classic soul song.

They stare at each other…and then, from off in the corner where the guy from Syria sits, a single clap begins, and then another….and another…..and….

The quiet Norwegian is up on his chair….screaming his head off.

People are hugging, dancing…and then Obama is on their shoulders, and they’re parading him around the room.

And then, because he has the boombox again, while he’s riding on his new friend’s shoulders, he turns up the volume even higher…and once more hits “PLAY”…..

Humor me. Close your eyes and imagine….Chaka singing…the President smiling….the leaders of the world carrying him, cheering…and loud funk music playing to set the mood.

It could happen.

It should happen.

Who am I kidding?…it won’t happen.

But wouldn’t it be cool if it did?