Tuesday, December 1, 2009

a confession


    Are you ready to be shocked? Brace yourselves, faithful readers.

    Alright, here it is... I adore Taylor Swift.

    Now, I know that this news totally blows your mind because you think of me as so incredibly edgy with my many posts on poetry and cats, but you are just going to have to believe it.

    This confession is also major because I don't want it to reflect upon and embarrass the two dear friends that I share this blog with and who are both the epitome of hip (what with Mae's concern about archiving her children's school work for the long hall and Lorelei's near mania for children's libraries - there is a real chance that these ladies are going to cut me loose!).


    Alas, I kid. Those two are as dorky as I am (thus my love for them), but loving Taylor Swift is still a goofy thing to admit to since I am not 15 (I'm more like two 15 year olds and a first grader).

    Other celebrities her age annoy me to no end (cough, Miley) so I'm as surprised as anyone as to how much I enjoy Ms Taylor. Sure, she has cute style and is up for anything (check her out on SNL), but I think the heart of her appeal is that there is a real sincerity to her songs about young love.

    Her songs are, yes, simple and sweet, but in that way they are also able to capture an earnestness and vulnerability that reminds me how it felt to be in high school when every emotion was so new, so heightened, so raw - even when you were happy.

    via weheartit

    Anyway, I sent the acoustic version of Taylor Swift's Fifteen to my friend Ruby who, because she is such a beautiful writer, knew exactly how to express how this teenager singer taps into a thirtysomething's nostalgia:
    "It makes me remember the first time I ever held hands with a boy. It makes me remember the first time I ever got caught kissing a boy. Joe Silvio. Italian hunkahunka, football player, Catholic, older brother to a new born baby sister. It makes me remember the poem I wrote in high school about all those people there. I memorized a bit of it...In a place of jagged edges, may our circle of light shine through. In a place where there are no benches, tell me where to sit, to read, to believe what I say I believe. It reminds me of my dramatic nature, my mother's dramatic nature:-), a smug teenage self rolling my eyes. I'm with you, friend. That kinda shit does all sorts of things to you. It's really nice to be all ages at once, as Madeleine L'Engle says we are."
    Doesn't Ruby just nail it? Taylor Swift's songs totally speak to the inner geeky teenage girl and it is nice, every now and again, to feed her needs too.

    P.S. Oh, and I am so outing Lorelei... she loves herself some Taylor too. So does her 1 1/2 year old daughter who is obviously already laying the groundwork for her future teenage soul...
    Source URL: https://jimhensons.blogspot.com/2009/12/confession.html
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