The Truth is a Lie #7

Are you better off now than your were four years ago? How about eight years ago?

I will start by saying that I am definitely worse off economically now than I was 4 years ago (lots of folks are in the same boat these days), and considerably worse than eight years ago too. Some of that is the fault of the nations economy. Much of it is no one fault's but my own. But still.

When you take that question beyond financial considerations, my life has been much better for the most of the last 8 eight years than it was in the years before that. There was very little love and rock and roll during the Clinton years. Yeah, those years started off pretty good, but sometime in 1995 I hit a slump that did not end until 2001. No love. No rock and roll. The country was in great shape, but I hit 200 lbs. and drowned in Coors Light and self pity. (Is that too candid for the blog? screw it, it's the truth.) The Clinton years were rough that way, but I had a good job and had plenty of money to blow on beer and so-called good times.

Then 2001 came around and things started to change. First of all George Bush sent me that check for 300 bucks. That was nice of him. Then I got myself one hell of a nice apartment at the train station, and the White Stripes came to Earnestine and Hazel's. The next morning the world was turned upside down, and everything we'd known seemed wrong. The slate had been cleared. The game was different. So, off into the new world I went, we all went. And there was fear, but there was also a feeling of resiliency. "We're not gonna let those bastards keep us from being free!" so off I went to Nashville to see Ryan Adams play at 328. That was Sept. 29, 2001. (If any of you don't know what happened that night I got a record I wrote about it. Shoot me a message and a few bucks and I'll send you one.) And the world was strange and scary and new and one adventure followed another.

The six years that followed that September were the best of my life so far. I shook loose of the doldrums and found the rock and roll, the spirit, the romance, and, finally, the love I'd been looking for all those long years. I don't necessarily have all of those things today, but, damn it, I know what they FEEL like. And that is more than a lot folks can say, and I'm thankful for it. I'm not still hanging in the beer garden any night in 1999 thinking about how great it's gonna be when I have myself a real rock and roll band and find a cool gal to spend my time with. I have had those things, and I know that they CAN be had. (now everyone might not be looking for a rock and roll band or a dark haired doll. but whatever it is you're looking for you CAN find it. The secret is...hell, I don't know the secret, but it does have something to do with not looking --- on the outside anyway.)

So, if we're talking about money then I am definitely not better off than I was eight years ago. But, if we're talking about living then yeah, I'm doing good. Does that mean I'm gonna vote for the Republican in November? No way in hell. I just hope I'm not doing myself in, and I hope that I have learned enough in these hard times to make the good times ahead that much better.