Silent All These Years: Excuse me, but can I be you for a while?

Comedy is an escape, not from truth but from despair; a narrow escape into faith.
— Christopher Fry that odd Stranger in the Dining Room and Malabar Beach Diner 

Strange experiences aren't given to us to be 'got over,' otherwise they would hardly be experiences


...Finding Wisdom in the Letters of Aging Writers:In 1975, a 63-year-old Elizabeth Bishop wrote to her long-time friend and fellow poet Robert Lowell, who was then 58 and just two years from his death. “I’m going to be very impertinent and aggressive,” she wrote. “Please, please don’t talk about old age so much, my dear old friend! You are giving me the creeps.” In many ways, Bishop’s admonition of Lowell is the perfect expression of a particular antagonism toward the changes and challenges brought on by aging. This discomfort isn’t simply garden-variety fear, or even denial, but an insurgency-like resistance. 

Jack Townsend, Russians Must Have Time on Their Hands. Apparently Russians like to read about tax crime

Silent All These Years by Tori Amos top ten

Excuse me, but can I be you for a while

My dog won't bite if you sit real still

I got the Anti-Christ in the kitchen yellin' at me again

Yeah, I can hear that

Been saved again by the garbage truck

I got something to say, you know, but nothing comes

Yes, I know what you think of me, you never shut up

Yeah, I can hear that

But what if I'm a mermaid, in these jeans of his with her name still on it
Hey, but I don't care 'cause sometimes, I said sometimes I hear my voice.
And it's been here silent all these years

So you found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts
What's so amazing about really deep thoughts
Boy you best pray that I bleed real soon
How's that thought for you
My scream got lost in a paper cup
You think there's a heaven where some screams have gone
I got twenty-five bucks an' a cracker
Do you think it's enough to get us there

Cause what if I'm a mermaid, in these jeans of his with her name still on it
Hey, but I don't care 'cause sometimes, I said sometimes I hear my voice
And it's been here silent all these

Years go by, will I still be waiting for somebody else to understand
Years go by, if I'm stripped of my beauty and the orange clouds raining in my head
Years go by, will I choke on my tears 'til, finally there is nothing left
One more casualty, you know we're too easy, easy, easy

Well, I love the way we communicate
Your eyes focus on my funny lip shape
Let's hear what you think of me now
But, baby, don't look up- the sky is falling
Your mother shows up in a nasty dress
Hmm, it's your turn now to stand where I stand
Everybody lookin' at you, here taken hold of my hand
Yeah, I can hear them

But what if I'm a mermaid in these jeans of yours with her name still on it
Hey, but I don't care 'cause sometimes, I said sometimes I hear my voice
I hear my voice, I hear my voice, and it's been here
Silent all these years. I've been here silent all these years
Silent all these, silent all these years