So anyhoo...
The Small Town is in a fury. Bad stuff abounds -- a school janitor accused of child rape (that thing I couldn't talk about), a teenager accused of the same, underage drinking with some serious and horrifying consequences. The place is atwitter of anxiety and second-guessing: we thought life was grand here, we thought we were safe here, they say.
Dudes, no one is safe. Safe is for suckers. Life is dangerous. Danger lurks.
Meanwhile, the Kid is suffering through the Downturn and so we have our own anxiety at home. And I got the guts kicked out of me about The Book and realized my tough skin is a sham: I am wobbly-kneed at the core. Weak-witted maybe.
I did what I do: tuned in to sad songs.
BUT! This isn't one -- so much -- at least for me. This is a love letter to myself, and to the Kid, a song that played in my car when I drove him home those many years ago, before all of this, mortgages and bills and kids and grownupdom, and this is also a song to my friend, the Writer, the Authoress, the co-pilot on my flight to the beginning of the future.
Blue is for you. We are not perfect. Thankfully.
19commentsBrilliant Person Wrote...
Oh god, I love the Jayhawks!
my goodness. Tomorrow's Friday? That's all I can say.
Great tunes. This seems to be the month of VERY BAD THINGS.
Jesus. There is no safe, is there?
Beautiful song though.
Ugh- so sorry to hear about the yucky happening. I have a few go-to movies that I watch when I feel like bawling my eyes out like a little baby because the world seems to be turning upside down (kind of like you and your sad songs it sounds like). Among them- Steel Magnolias, Terms of Endearment and My Life.
Sometimes, what with all the background noise--of cats and children begging for food, NPR telling me how sucky everything is, the phone ringing--I forget that I had a while life before this. And it had an amazing soundtrack. Love this tune.
It is scary, sometimes, how scary this world can be. Last year I read an incredible book called What is the What, about one of the lost boys of Sudan. It is a book I picked up because the review called it "haunting and luminous" but it was a truly life-altering read, full of terrible stories of people being attacked by machetes or disappearing into the brush only to be devoured by wild animals. So a new tagline in our house has sprung up: whenever someone starts to complain about how unfair it is that I buy the wrong grape jelly or we're missing some of the crazy eights deck, I remind them how lucky they are:
"At least you're not getting eaten by a lion."
Crimony. Sorry. Been wondering how the Kid was weathering the storm... I'd imagine it's a bit stressful for all concerned. And I'm sorry to hear that whatever happened with the Book happened with the Book. That sucks.
And I get the music thing — the way you need it to reflect and refract and allow you to navigate your mood.
All that being said: here's to a better March. (It is possible, right?)
Wait. We're not perfect?
Love the Jayhawks my friend. Nice choice. And tomorrow is the last day of February which means the funk is going bye bye.
The future looks bright. Get your shades.
The Blues can be good...as long as they are the right kind of blues. Sorry you have the wrong shade of blue. Go try to find something in that lovely shade of robin's egg... I find that pretty cheery.
Nooooo! This has been an especially sucky February indeed. Thank goodness there's so little left of it.
Be well.
Thanks for this honey. Much needed on a hungover day.
thanks for the introduction to the Jayhawks. My kind of music. Sorry things are sucky. Sucky is only good in very particular situations. Chin up...
Funny how those Louris/Olson harmonies can instantly make you feel better. I'm just gonna close my eyes and go to my happy place for 3 minutes. Hang in there..... xo
Eek.
I am sorry you are angsty. I hope it's merely bobbing in the rough waves, with calmer seas on the way.
I love that song. And not to worry, this too shall pass.
I am sorry to hear about all of the bad news. All of those things are very hard things indeed.
Just remember that rough patches (rough meadows? rough forests?) always have a bunch of sorrow and doubt piled one atop another... it's the nature of such things.
And they DO end... we come out the other side. A little older, a little wiser, a little more brittle... but out we come, none the less.
"Blue" by the Jayhawks is in my top 3 all time favorite songs, if not THE favorite song. It's sad...but I always feel a little better when I hear it because it reminds me how much I love the people that I love.
And for God's sake, you ARENT weak-witted. That was almost laughable, darlin.
What you are is human. And a little blue. :)
Today's snow has a blue tint to it.
It's weird, what's Going On. It's blue and sad and not so very hopeful after all. Soon enough though, I'm hoping the blue ocean will catch our attention and make the earth look green again. It's too blue right now.
I'll buy 20 copies of your damn book, by the way. And I'll shout through the nearest bull horn that, "I KNOW HER!!!"
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