What everybody needs

I recently had the opportunity to join in a discussion with some of my favorite colleagues and chat with the Los Angeles County Mental Health Director, Dr. Marvin Southard, about the upcoming planning process to implement Proposition 63, the Mental Health Initiative. Prop 63 will greatly increase funding for mental health assistance for underserved Californians, especially children and the homeless. In the course of our discussion about the various ways that mental health professionals and stakeholder groups might come together for the greater good, Dr. Southard mentioned, almost in passing, how “everybody needs” certain basic things to get by in life. I quickly jotted down those two words, “everybody needs,” and began compiling my own wish list, with three or four items, leaving room for more, as I would come back to this topic.

Later in the meeting I came back to this subject and asked Dr. Southard to share his own list with me. How pleasantly surprised I was to find that our list nearly completely overlapped—three of his four items were already on my list.

When I got home that evening I was looking at the way I had written the topic and the list on my notebook and I found myself singing out the title, “Everybody needs…” in the cadence and pitch of a song. So, I picked up my guitar and my thoughts flowed. Here, in verse, is what the muse gave me:

Everybody needs some shelter. Everybody needs a place to call their own. Everybody needs a home, to go to, A place to come from, a place to place their soul

Everybody needs some help, from time to time. Everybody needs a hand, a dime, a (rhyme). Everybody needs to know they’re worth it, (to) Believe in something good inside themselves.

Everybody needs some friendship, Someone who listens to them when times get rough— To walk a mile, to share a smile, to carry on— to find the path less traveled and take it all the way.

Everybody needs a time out from the ups and the downs— from the weights and the burdens that bring the good ones down. What everybody needs is everybody needing what they need and knowing the simple truth that we’re all in this together.

Everybody needs to get it all together— to put things right, to be on time, to have it all in one place. To find the balance that blends the differences between us all and keep perspective that one and one is two, but two can still be one.

Everybody needs to be accepted— To love one another the way they ought to love themselves. To find the truth, to speak it loud, to get beyond the skin To take a step from the cave of darkness into the light of the day.

But how can anyone be happy, When brothers are standing on corners with nothing but the wind to hold them up? When sisters are sleeping in fear and insecurity? When children go hungry, they can’t understand the why.

Everybody needs a chance to elevate, To raise their standards of life and co-existence. We can help to change the world or be changed—it’s up to you, my friend. Let’s make a difference, defeat indifference, and create a brand new world.

I’d be happy to send a song sheet with chords to anyone who may want to give this song a try. I’m going to sing if for my friends and for anyone else who will listen until too many people tell me to stop. My thanks to Dr. Southard for speaking those two words into my listening ear.

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