I Want My Life Back

(Photo courtesy of crows to burnaby on flikr.com)

I love listening to country music radio on long trips. It has the perfect cadence for the road. Driving to Illinois last weekend, a Buckey Covington song came on and the lyrics made me cry, right there, alone in the car. And then also laugh, because it was so pathetic that I was crying alone in my car.

I'd heard the song before, but apparently not. Now I was putting faces -- from the prison visit, from the homeless or down-and-out standing in the Saturday morning sack lunch line at the library -- with the words. And realizing -- even though I already "knew" -- how quick fixes, like handing someone $20, can sometimes be a saving grace, but many other times, doesn't even begin to address their real heartaches.

I'm such a bleeding heart. Geez.

"He was warmin' his hands with a hot coffee cup
Pourin' in whiskey as I walked up he never blinked an eye
He just asked for a light, I noticed he didn't have soles on his shoes
So I pulled out a twenty said go buy some food
But he just stared at his cup like I wasn't there
Then he looked at me said 'Son that's nice
But there's some things money can't buy',

I want my life back, I want that house that I called home,
I want that job I worked for twenty two years before I got laid off,
I want what I had when I laid down in the arms of the woman that believed in me
And the man I used to be, I want my life back