If your goals for 2024 feel too far off to be attainable, take some inspiration from the sea turtle that graces the album art for Christian Wannerwall’s “Happy.”
Just consider the obstacles facing a tiny sea turtle in the first moments of its life.
Sea turtles are, of course, aquatic animals; but unlike most aquatic animals, they’re not born in the water. A freshly-hatched sea turtle emerges from its egg on the beach, buried in sand. But rather than getting to hang out in this safe little sand-cave, it must avoid potential land-based predators by scrambling down to the water in that adorable flip-flop way you’ve probably seen sea turtles do on nature shows.
On its way to the water, hatchlings are vulnerable to crabs, birds, foxes, feral dogs, and any number of other beasts with a taste for fresh seafood.
When it finally arrives at the water, even the smallest waves breaking on the shore are tsunami-like in scale to the tiny turtle, who gets continuously pushed back by the very ocean that will provide it with refuge from those predators.
If the sea turtle manages to avoid being snatched up or flipped onto its shell, it then has to swim – something it learns to do with zero practice whatsoever, by the way – into deeper waters to avoid the many predators who populate the shallows.
All of this is before we even consider the pressures and perils added into the equation by humans and their love of plastic.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. Christian Wannerwall’s guitar is recorded so close that you can hear the friction between his fingertips and the strings.
2. The main melodic line is sometimes doubled (with one guitar panned slightly towards each channel) but sometimes not; a recording quirk that gives the song lots of character.
3. Just when it seems like he might end the track on an unresolved chord, he doesn’t. The turtle makes it to the sea.
Recommended listening activity:
Stretching your flippers, busting out of your shell, and smelling the ocean, no matter how distant it may seem.