"We love strawberry swing because it helps me to focus when it's too noisy to be happy."

Everyone has a favorite song, but not everyone plays it 24/7

Everyone has a favorite song

Strawberry Swing is a song by the band Coldplay that I have heard at least a trillion times, and that's not an exaggeration. It's not a song I have ever sought out. I'm pretty sure it's not even a song I like. No, every single time I have heard this song is from Calder playing the video on his iPad. Every chance Calder gets, he will play the first four to ten seconds of it before deciding to replay it repeatedly. Over and over and over again. There have been times when everything will be silent and then suddenly I hear its intro. Sometimes it's because Calder has just wandered in with his iPad. Other times, there's not an iPad or Calder around, and still, I hear it. That is how ingrained it has become in my head. The song will not be playing and I will still hear it.

I'm not a fan. But the song does serve its purpose. For one, Strawberry Swing acts as a warning sign as in Alert! Incoming Calder. Because outside of Calder, I do not believe I have ever heard it so it acts as sort of his entrance into a room like how Hail to the Chief plays whenever the President enters. If I have a snack on the counter and then I hear Strawberry Swing, I can immediately swing into action and put it away before Calder tries to steal it. If my mom comes home from the store and asks, "Where's Calder," I can point in the direction of where Strawberry Swing is playing and there Calder will be.

The song may be annoying to me, but to Calder it's soothing. Say, for instance, you're in public enjoying a nice meal and then you hear your brother start screaming (If you have ever seen Rainman it's like the scene in Charlie's apartment where Raymond freaks out because he is overwhelmed by the noise and lights and emotional stress of the fire alarm). But unlike Raymond, Calder has a way to calm himself: Strawberry Swing. The instant the song is playing, 9 times out of 10, Calder begins to relax. He'll stop screaming and focus on the familiar notes and images of Chris Martin floating around in the cartoon-like video. I have no idea as to why. But it works. It's like how parents will give an upset baby a pacifier or how when you wrap a shivering person in a blanket, they feel safe.