Finding Life Lessons On Giving Up Healthily In “Midnight Train to Georgia”

We live in a world of optimism and life coaches all over telling us to follow our dreams - which is nice, but not everyone’s dream will come true so it is important to talk about what happens when a dream goes unrealized. Maybe some of us give up on our dream and just give up on life altogether. Maybe some of us give up on our dream and pursue a dream that is equally unlikely to happen. Either way, it is important to add dialogue on “giving up healthily” in our conversations of pushing people to follow their dreams. Even now, as I research to write this article, yes, I be researching sometimes, I searched “how to give up on your dreams.” 99% of the articles on the first search page of Google were on signs it is time to give up or how to not give up on your dreams. Please realize that some dreams are not meant to happen. Do not encourage someone until they are that 50-year-old aspiring rapper wearing a Panama hat and big ass checkered shirt tryna rap at the local city festival.

There are several songs encouraging us to follow our dreams. Nas’ “I Know I Can” comes to mind – a classic and legendary song I love. But if you cannot be what you want to be, how do you reconcile that reality? Well, another classic and legendary song I also love, sort of touches on dreams and really giving up: Gladys Knight and the Pips’ “Midnight Train to Georgia.” That’s right. “Midnight Train to Georgia” is not just a story about going home- it is about giving up when it’s time to.

The first verse of the song brings this point home out the gate:

L.A. Proved too much for the man
Too much for the man, he couldn’t make it
So he’s leavin’ the life he’s come to know whoo
He said he’s goin’
He said he’s goin’ back to find
Goin’ back to find
Ooh, what’s left of his world
The world he left behind
Not so long ago

One of the important things to acknowledge is that there is no shame in returning to where you came from whether it be your hometown or your mama’s house. Returning home is a much better alternative to staying somewhere struggling while your dreams don’t come true or worse struggling while constantly seeing other people around you accomplishing things you’ve only dreamt about.

The second verse is no different. This ain’t just a classic soul song, there are lessons in these lyrics:

He kept dreamin’ (dreamin’)
That someday he’d be a star
A superstar, but he didn’t get far
But he sure found out the hard way
That dreams don’t always come true
So he pawned all his hopes
And he even sold his old car
Bought a one way ticket back
To the life he once knew
Oh yes he did
He said he would

I’m sure there are many thoughts after giving up on a dream. You may think that you did not try hard enough and you’re giving up too soon. But, none of those thoughts are going to negate the gut feeling even reality that it is time to give up. More to the point, if things are not necessarily going badly for you but you want to give up just because you realize your dream ain’t all you thought it was cut out to be, that’s perfectly valid.

“Midnight Train to Georgia” doesn’t reveal exactly what it is the character in the song does after leaving L.A. I only hope that he either followed another dream with a higher likelihood of coming true or found another outlet to pursue his original dream more realistically. That last statement might not make sense so here are some examples: say you want to be a professional basketball player in the NBA, and that dream does not come true, a healthy way to give up on that dream would be to become a basketball coach (and possibly raise the next LeBron James). Spoiler Alert If you’ve seen Cars 3, then you know that Lighting McQueen had to give up his dream of becoming the champion racecar because of new-generation speedsters like Jackson Storm outperforming him. Did Lightning McQueen give up his dream when he realized he couldn’t beat Storm? Yes. Did he give up on life? No. What did he do? He became humble, accepted that his dream would not come true, and coached Cruz Ramirez who was able to beat Storm.

We got life coaches, our mamas, and pastors telling us to follow our dreams and never give up. Encouragement is important but so is reassurance that it is perfectly okay to give up too - so long as you find something else to pursue.