Ok - I know. Cliche dyke. I went to an IG concert on Friday and I just can't help it. Growing up, IG were the only lesbian role models I really had. Their words had a profound effect on who I've become. Looking back on the lyrics of the songs which had the most impact, I see where I'm going. I've excerpted those lyrics today.

Strange Fire

Pain from pearls-hey little girl-
How much have you grown?

Are you on fire,
From the years?
What would you give for your
Kid fears?

Hammer and a Nail

I had a lot of good intentions
Sit around for fifty years and then collect a pension,
Started seeing the road to hell and just where it starts.
But my life is more than a vision
The sweetest part is acting after making a decision
I started seeing the whole as a sum of its parts.
My life is part of the global life
I'd found myself becoming more immobile
When I'd think a little girl in the world can't do anything.
A distant nation my community
A street person my responsibility
If I have a care in the world I have a gift to bring.

Watershed

And they say only milk and honey's gonna make your soul satisfied!
How recklessly my time has been spent.
And they say that it's never too late, but you don't get any younger!
Well I better learn how to starve the emptiness
And feed the hunger
Up on the watershed, standing at the fork in the road
You can stand there and agonize
Till your agony's your heaviest load.
You'll never fly as the crow flies, get used to a country mile.
When you're learning to face the path at your pace
Every choice is worth your while.
Well there's always retrospect to light a clearer path
Every five years or so I look back on my life
And I have a good laugh.
You start at the top, go full circle round
Catch a breeze, take a spill

You and Me of the 10,000 Wars

dividing life into factions of pleasure and chores -
The heart of a skeptic and the mind of a child,
put my life in a box and let my imagination run wild
pour the cement for my feet.
the heart and the mind on a parallel course
never the two shall meet.
Try making one and one make one
twist the shapes until everything comes undone
The evil ego and the vice of pride
is there ever anything else that makes us take our different sides?
I wanted everything to feed me.

Let It Be Me

Sticks and stones battle zones
A single light bulb on a single thread for the black
Sirens wail history fails
Rose-colored glass begins to age and crack
While the politicians shadowbox the power ring
In an endless split decision never solve anything
From a neighbor's distant land
I heard the strain of the common man
Let it be me (this is not a fighting song)
Let it be me (not a wrong for a wrong)
Let it be me, if the world is night shine my life like a light
Well the world seems spent
And the president
Has no good idea of who the masses are
Well I’m one of them
And I’m among friends
Trying to see beyond the fences of our own backyard
I’ve seen kingdoms blow like ashes in the winds of change
But the power of truth is the fuel for the flame
So the darker the ages get there's a stronger beacon yet
In the kind word you speak
In the turn of the cheek
When your vision stays clear
In the face of your fear
Then you see turning off a light switch is their only power
When we stand like spotlights in a mighty tower
All for one and one for all
Then we sing the common call