I can honestly say I never knew the name of this song, even though for the better part of a decade it was an anthem for my mother. She, we, always referred to it as that “what a drag” song. The famous line goes, “I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes. You’d know what a drag it is to see you.” Play it again, she’d say. The empowerment given by this song that we couldn’t address by title, was palpable. 

But that’s the thing, we don’t need to know or call things by name. We’re all going through something. We all have our “Fourth Street.” And we all have a choice. To cower, or to stand proudly. It was my mother who taught me to choose the song. To sing it out loud!  

Yesterday in front of the large canvas, I stood strong and played the song over and over. All the moments of why we needed an anthem were gone, and the strength of having one remained. How could anything be more positive than that? 

I looked up the title this morning — that makes sense I thought, and began making my way down the street. Positively fourth street.