Jimmy Buffett left us a two-word philosophy for life: Bubbles Up
Summer is over, but I don’t have the heart to put away my flip flops.
I’ve been blasting Jimmy Buffett tunes ever since he died Labor Day Weekend. I can’t get enough of “Come Monday,” “Margaritaville,” and “Little Miss Magic.”
Then, wham, I discovered his latest release, and I can’t stop playing it.
“Bubbles Up” could inspire anyone who is looking to reboot a retirement, correct a mid-life crisis, or kick off the new year that Rosh Hashanah promises.
Jimmy Buffett, who was born on Christmas day, turned out to be a gift to us all. The musician, storyteller and pirate lived life as if it were an eternal summer. The “tropical troubadour” died from a rare skin cancer on Sept. 1. He was 76.
Born in Pascagoula, Miss., Buffett grew up in Mobile, Alabama. He tried to make a living in country music, but Nashville didn’t work out so he headed as far south as he could until he hit Key West.
There, he found a lifestyle he loved then built a career and an empire around it. He became a billionaire -- in flip flops.
Back in 1989, he told the Washington Post, “When I found Key West and the Caribbean, I wasn’t really successful yet, but I found a lifestyle, and I knew that whatever I did would have to work around my lifestyle.”
Those words have been following me around all week: Find a lifestyle you love, then build the rest of your life around it.
It wasn’t like Buffett just sat on the beach watching waves. It took a lot of work to pump out bestselling books, songs, concerts, and some 50 plus albums.
In his younger days he did a lot of drugs and drank a lot of booze, but he had no regrets. In the song, “He Went to Paris,” Buffet sang, “Some of it’s magic, some of it’s tragic, but I had a good life all the way.”
Sometimes the bumpy parts of life are the best parts. Buffett wrote his biggest hit “Margaritaville” on a napkin in a Mexican restaurant in Austin, Texas, before his flight to Key West. As Maureen Dowd shared in her New York Times column, when he got to Key West, a fender bender on a bridge left him stuck for an hour overlooking Pigeon Key. That’s where he finished the song that inspired an empire that included resort complexes, restaurants, fancy tequila, a clothing line, foods, home furnishings and more.
Buffet told “Rolling Stone” back in 2020 how he wanted to be remembered: “I’d say, ‘He had a good time and made a lot of people happy’ would be good.”
His new song, “Bubbles Up” will make a lot of people happy.
Paul McCartney praised the song, saying Buffett “turned a diving phrase that is used to train people underwater into a metaphor for life when you’re confused and don’t know where you are just follow the bubbles — they’ll take you up to the surface and straighten you out right away.”
If you’ve ever fallen out of a boat or been spun upside down and around by a rough ocean wave, you know that survival tip sailors and divers use: Bubbles up.
Air bubbles always go up, leading you to the surface where you can breathe freely again. Bubbles Up is also a great life philosophy. When life tosses you around like a wild wave, pause, exhale and follow the bubbles up.
The lyrics are as deep as the water he so loved:
When your compass is spinnin’
And you’re lost on the way
Like a leaf in the wind, friend
Hear me when I say
Bubbles Up
They will point you towards home
No matter how deep or how far you roam
They will show you the surface,
The plot and the purpose
So, when the journey gets long
Just know that you are loved
There is light up above
and the joy is always enough
Bubbles Up
No matter what happens, no matter how often the world pulls you under, relax, exhale and follow the bubbles. When you get to the surface, breathe in, breathe out, and stay put in the only time it ever is: Now. Not into tomorrow’s fears. Not into yesterday’s regrets.
Here, where you know that you’re loved, that there’s Light up above and the joy of living is always, always enough.
#JimmyBuffett #BubblesUp #Margaritaville