Monday, April 18, 2011

“The Prize Is Always Worth the Rocky Ride”

My muse punked out on me.  So, I decided to visit oneword.com to see if could get a bit of inspiration.  This site offers up a random word.  In theory, you are to write for 60 seconds about the word, and then submit it to the site where others can view your writing.  When grasping for straws, I’d rather post my work to a smaller audience:  my blog.

The word that appeared on the site tonight was “Acoustic.”   So off to my iTunes library I ran for additional motivation.  I found an acoustic rendering of “The Wood Song” by the Indigo Girls and set that bad boy on repeat.


I’d seen the Indigo Girls twice on the Swamp Ophelia tour:  in the Woodlands north of Houston and at Texas A&M.  I worked with four Indigo Girls fans at the time:  a straight couple and two lesbians.  We all caravanned (along with the girlfriend of one of the lesbians) to College Station for the A&M show.  It was a weird wonderful trip: 

§  We drank lots of Shiner beer and ate lots of Whataburger taquitos
§  We passed time before the concert at an apartment shared by four guy students:  the features of the residence included a drum kit, a mountain of empty toilet paper rolls in the bathroom and pin-ups of half-dressed skatepunk girls on the walls.
§  We played a lot of Frisbee
§  The single lesbian put the moves on the girlfriend of our co-worker and successfully stole her away, unbeknownst to us.  (You can imagine the drama that followed).

Back to the song.  “The Wood Song” is a civil rights tune.  You can use the theme of song for any cause you’d like.  Of course, since I am gay and since the Indigo Girls are lesbians, let’s just say that this one is for equal rights.  The lyrics do not come out and say that.  Nor do they need to.  Any good inspiring song should be universal.

“We'll make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds
Then we'll have missed the point
That's where I need to go”

We’re not quite to the point, but we will make it eventually, through storms or shine … with bock beer and greasy fast food, with a snare and a high hat, with a stolen girlfriend … with or without my muse.

"The Wood Song"  Indigo Girls

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