Myself

The first time I heard this song, I thought... 'they nailed it.' And it's true. Like many good songs, poems and other forms of art it allows everyone their own interpretation. So when I heard it on 977music.com's mix, after the start of this year and the end of the last, I couldn't help but think of how often the same feeling bubbled to the surface when dealing with my father when he was alive. He had his way, I have mine, and the two ways were rarely inline. Worse, they were rarely able to be coordinated.

But when he left, he did finally let me be myself. And things have gone fairly well so far, enough so that had he hung around a bit longer to watch he would have seen that my way does work - and in some cases, they work better. But things never would have worked had he still been around because one of us would always have been disgruntled. It's funny to consider now, but it wasn't so fun to consider then.

Where he worried for his own safety on the land he left behind for me, I've negotiated with a former tenant and gotten the start of an office on the land for dealing with the land. Where he was unable to see a return on the land, I've gotten the land to be at least enough profitable to make an office of worth. I can't help but wonder what he would think if he saw what I have done in only one year.

And that's only one aspect. There are others that I cannot write about at this time, out of respect for the living. Still, where a teenager might read these lyrics one way... I'll just say... it doesn't get easier to be yourself.

But I've always been myself. And that's almost enough. It's never enough, though... and that's the next stage.