I don’t want To straighten my hair To trade my glasses for contacts To lose weight To wear trendy clothes So you can say I’m pretty I also don’t need your acceptance I just want to be left alone To drink my coffee in peace And enjoy the wind on my face Because I don’t care enough About my appearance To leave the windows up Have you realized how deprived You are And how limited to liking certain things Just to fit in When you tell yourself You’re standing out I wish you would sing Like nobody’s listening (Because they’re not) And if they are They just wish they had the courage to sing Like you’re doing And have fun In that abandoned fashion I wish you would dance Even though you wore the wrong shoes And it’s so hot And you don’t know these people All the more reason The blisters will heal The sweat will dry And the people will forget If they remember at all Eat the cheese The doughnuts The cake The steak Drink the liquor The cheap wine The mountain dew that’s no good for you Hold the hand Make the call Because you get one trip It’s not easy to be a nerd In a party crowd To be a gardener In a city To embrace your contentedness In a room full Of money hungry Power tripping Hustlers If only You could…
I know I write about death a lot. It’s on my mind. I’m all the time having to go to the funeral home. And that’s fine. I love a lot of people. That’s what you do if you’re brought up right. You go see them one last time. Sean Dietrich writes about his dad who died when he was 14 almost every day. It’s tiresome, but it’s what he knows. And his heart is obviously bleeding out right there on the screen. You don’t have to read it. I used to be terrified I would die at the happiest point of my life. Then I came to the realization that to do so would be the best way to go. I consistently wished on birthday candles and pennies in fountains that I would always be as happy as I was at that moment in time. That’s unrealistic. Of course we’re going to have highs and lows. I’ve had some doozies. But, as Shelby taught us in Steel Magnolias, “I’d rather have five minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.” Yeah, I’ll buy some stock in that. You have to have darkness to appreciate the good times. We’re spoiled. We forget how good we’ve got it. Anyway. What I’m here to tell you is that…