Forrest Gump Diva

When I was about 20 or 21, the movie Forrest Gump came out, the fantastic story of this simple non-intellectual fellow who happened to be in the right place at the right time, usually.

At the time I lived in an apartment with three other guys and we all were going to school at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. There was Jason, the double- majored(business and finance) straight as an arrow, but loved to drink Busch Light Beer like a fish roommate. Then there was Kris, the experimental one(no more to add to that description, just use your imagination). I never knew what his actual major was. And finally, Jeff, a finance major who loved to party as much as the next guy. He never worked when he was our roommate but somehow always had money. I was a hardworking English major who sometimes wowed the guys when I would be able to read a classical novel and watch television at the same time. We had a good thing going, we four "horsemen" with our little apartment setup.

Jeff came home one day with the Forrest Gump soundtrack and played it over and over. Many awesome songs from the 1960's and 1970's were featured, such as Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street," Lynard Skynard's "Freebird," and Aretha Franklin's "Respect."

"Respect" was one that we managed to repeat and play again and again. It wasn't that we were particularly big Aretha fans, it was that the song itself was BIG. It sang volumes to us through the music: the thumping bass, the instantly recognizeable guitar introduction, Aretha's voice, the backing vocals dueting with Aretha. We would pick up a lamp or a broom and dance with it. Jeff would sing into a comb or large wooden spoon. It just somehow got us going and made everything all right in the end.

Respect was something my rommates and I all had(and still ahve) for each other, despite our different backgrounds and majors. Aretha's song of hope and jubilation for the act of simply respecting one another make for the perfect human lesson to be learned.