May 24, 2011
When I was in high school, a friend of mine and I made a mix tape of Me and Bobby McGee. Yep. One song. Over and over and over and over again. On both sides of the tape. We'd play it in her car as we drove to or home from our current haunt. Or just driving around aimlessly, laughing at mindless things in a mindless town.
Several years ago, I thought a thought. And it's been wiggling it's way around the gyri and sulci in my noggin ever since then. It bothers me.
And so now, I've added one more thing to my bucket list. That one day, Janis and I shall have a chat. I know she was from a different time. Clearly an idealist from an idealistic decade, for sure. And I am more of a harsh realist.
But I will say, I do not believe that freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. If you have nothing left to lose, you are dead. Not free. Because as long as you're alive, you have air in your lungs and blood pumping in your veins. And those things. Air and blood and pumping muscles. Those are things you still have left to lose. I don't know what freedom is. But maybe she's been chillin' out with jesus christ superstar long enough to have figured it out by now. And maybe she'll tell me.
Until then, it's still a fuckawesome song.
9 minions who have sucked on my crap:
You forced me to search for this on youtube. They wouldn't let me watch that one :(
I like when you have thoughts and then share them. You should do that more often.
For the most part, my thoughts are simple and recycled from some higher mind, I'm sure. I cannot imagine that I am the only mind conjuring such little weeds of firing neurons. Put them in a pretty package with a bow and call them my own. It makes me seem so existential, yes?
One of my favorite songs. Kris Kristofferson said he wrote that line after quitting a good job- teaching at Westpoint to move to LA to become a songwriter. I've always Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose meant you determined your fate.
I love your admiration for Banks. She kicked so much ass and did ut with grit.
Dude, you really are a music snob, eh? I suppose I take things far too literally. I have a bad habit of breaking things down to their lowest common denominator. It means what it says... until it doesn't. Otherwise, my brain would explode.
When I think of the homeless persons in my extended family, I feel like I know what the sentiment conveys (to me, anyway).
Having a job is not freedom. Having a mortgage is not freedom. Freedom is walking the streets in your dirty rags and deciding you are too good to stay in the mission because they will preach to you after they feed you. In their cases, their mental health and a lot of their physical health was gone. Their families were estranged. They were completely unemployable. It wouldn't even have mattered if they'd gotten arrested and had a rap sheet...which incidentally, none of them ever did.
Did they have anything left to lose? Precious little. But man, they were FREE! Screw the man. They were free.
You always bring a right kick-ass perspective, Barb. I think you and I would be friends in non-blog-life ;) Which is saying a lot. I have precious few chick friends. And I don't mean that in a pretentious way, although it kind of sounds like it when I reread it. But I don't. I have precious few chick friends because I'm impossible to tolerate for any significant length of time.
"I do not believe that freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose. If you have nothing left to lose, you are dead. Not free." Very well said. Very.
Oh, and also the New Hampshire state motto: "Live Free or Die."
LOVE that song!!! Now I'll be singing it in my head all day. THANKS! Really!
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