St Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) — John Parr
This song was big when I was a young man. It was released in conjunction with a movie of the same name. I had not seen the movie when it was released. So, I never had any memory of the movie. But the song was very big on the radio in 1984.
Back then, when you released a movie, you had to be sure to have a hit song on the soundtrack. It was very important. The song would get a lot of radio play and as a result more and more people would be aware of the movie. Other movies that fell into this ideal were movies like Flashdance (with the multiple hits Flashdance… What a Feeling and Maniac,) Footloose (with the amazing Kenny Loggins song) and Short Circuit (with the extremely catchy song Who’s Johnny by El DeBarge.
But that was song really my ties to this song. It was catchy and almost overplayed, but there was something that kept in my musical memory. The song to me is a very inspirational song. I know it sounds corny, but it’s true.
Back when this song was released my life was a hot mess. I was a hyperactive child in a time when people didn’t know how to deal it that issue. My parents were very confused by this. In the 80s people would often just attribute the acting out to “kids being kids.’ except when it wasn’t. Or when they felt that I had gone too far. That seemed to happen a lot.
I never really got poor grades based on my academic knowledge. It was always my behavior. I was bored. I remember teachers calling my mom because I kept sliding out on my desk in class. The other kids thought it was funny and would constantly tease me about it. Then I’d get in trouble for making my mom leave work and the teachers would be annoyed at my disruption. Nothing seemed to keep me or my brain calm.
My parents, like many similar parents were told that medication was the answer. Doctors were prescribing drugs as quickly as they could. And I suppose in some cases it must have worked. Just no in my case. I was first given Ritalin. That was the miracle drug for add back then. I struggled while on this medication. Everything just seemed to get faster for me. Adults just didn’t understand the problem. My step mom decided to not allow me to take the drug, insisting that she didn’t want drugs in her house. Especially for a made-up thing. Instead, she attempted to control my impulses with a wooden spoon.
That only made things worse, as I found myself more and more angry. But that’s the way things were back in then, adults just didn’t understand or care what was wrong with kids. “What’s wrong with you kids, we never did anything like that when we were kids!” That was a common question in my neighborhood. They just seemed to be pissed off that children were not as good they were when they were kids. Although I am sure that there are grandparents out there that would tell a different sorry.
After some time, I’m not sure how long, probably because it was over 30 years ago, I was taken off the brain racing Ritalin and given something called Dexedrine. And to my surprise, that worked.
My childhood was still very much a hot mess. But everything seemed to get into focus. It didn’t allow me to get smarter or even more stupid, it just allowed me to see the traffic in my head before I would be forced to react. I had a moment to pause. The best thing Dexedrine did for me was it got my parents off my back long enough to allow me to learn how to focus. By myself. Later on, again the timeline is a little fuzzy, I forcibly took myself off the medication. I believed that I knew how to self-focus. I am very sure that I had nothing to do with the fact that I had heard older kids selling their add medication for money! I never did that, in fact it kind of scared me. I was angry, but not angry enough to become a drug dealer.
I would just not take the pills. I never told my parent that I was doing it. I don’t remember if I flushed the drugs to keep them from discovering my actions, or if I just left them in the bottle. I tend to think I flushed them for a bit, until I could muster the courage to tell my parents that I was off the sauce. I couldn’t have them finding out for themselves. I can’t for the life of me remember if they had any reaction at all to the news.
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So, where does the song come in? Right here.
This song talks about “you broke the boy in me, but you won’t break the man.” To me, that describes my life. When I think of my childhood and the events within it, I stiffen up and think of this song. My parents tried to break me, but they’ll never break the man that I have become.
That’s very important. The past will always kick the crap out of you sometimes. But if you let it mold the person you become, then they’ve won.
I used to be like that. Whenever I’d think of my parents or my childhood at all, I’d get upset. Not mad, but I’d have burning red rage. And that thinking kept me safe. From them and other people I believed would hurt me. I was always proactive as well. So, I would assume that people were trying to find a way to screw me over. It kept me safe and secure. But it also left alone. And protected and alone is pretty shitty. I hadn’t yet grown into the man that I wanted to become. In fact, I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to change.
I don’t remember a single incident that changed my stinkin’ thinkin’. But around the time I met my wife, that I had started to soften. I became aware that people weren’t out to get me. They were too busy being self-absorbed to bother with a loser like me. So, I began to change my way of thinking. I would look at strangers with indifference instead of the “how can I screw them before they screw me.”
To be quite honest, the new way of thinking was much easier that I had ever imagined. I wasn’t on edge every second of the day. I wasn’t strategizing on peoples’ emotional demise. My brain felt less…busy. It was just more relaxing to react instead of attack. At my age relaxing is a much better idea.
The song was sung by a man named John Parr. I have never heard anything else he has done. Apparently, he created and performed the theme song for Three men and a Baby, and the movie The Running Man. The song St. Elmo’s Fire was so popular that he was even nominated for a Grammy, back when music awards were an important thing in a musician’s career. He wrote the song in honor of a wheelchair athlete named Rick Hansen.
Rick Hansen is a Canadian athlete who didn’t allow a spinal cord injury due to a truck accident, slow his ambition down. After his accident he became inspired by Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope. That was a run across Canada to brought attention to people with cancer and cancer research. Rick decided to do the something similar. He started the Man in Motion tour. He traveled in his wheelchair for 26 months straight! He went around the world bring some much-needed attention to spinal cord research. He travelled up mountains and through cities accumulating a total of 40,075 km across 4 continents and 34 countries. Lately, he founded and runs the Rick Hansen Foundation, a foundation to help buildings in Canada, all buildings in Canada, become wheelchair accessible.
John Parr still tours and makes music. After taking a more backstage role in music production for about 10 years, John returned when a song called John Parr vs. Tommyknockers New Horizon became popular in 2006. Since then, he has opened for Bryan Adams and sang with bands like Journey and Richard Marx. The one thing that seems constant in John Parrs life is his need to help others. Besides the St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) song, he has helped raise money for prostate cancer research on ESPN’s SportsNation, and he helped the military charity Help for Heroes with his vocals. He always seems to be willing to sing for charity.
That’s the kind of man I always wanted to be. From a difficult beginning, I will rise up and be someone I can be proud of. That other’s won’t shy away from. I really like this song’s message of perseverance and determination. I really like the musician’s charitable acts that I knew nothing about, until I was researching this story. An amazing song, from a real charitable guy. And that’s something we can all strive to be.
Never let the past define you. The past is just that. The past. Learn from it. But leave it back there. I try not to look backwards; I just end up falling on my face. Look forward. Towards the future. Whatever it may bring. If you see it coming, you’ll be ready for it. If you’re looking backwards, you’ll get creamed.
Thank for reading a story that fell out of my head. Let me know what you think about this story or anything else in the comments below. As always, please like, comment subscribe, until next time.
