edc

Johnny Cash died today. In many ways I grew up on Johnny. My favorite song when I was five was "A boy named Sue" and a close second was cocaine blues because he said "Bitch" and it was not bleeped out or nothing.

It also reminded me of where I come from. I used to live in the middle of the county with the highest suicide rate in America. We averaged 6 a year for the first 14 years of my life. Most were native Americans that saw no way to escape the horrid world, others were taken by the cold reality of Wyoming life.

Johnny he used to speak to me back then. He felt that cold sting of lonely pain and put it down in words.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk
I'm wishing Lord that I was stoned
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin'
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of a sleepin' city sidewalk
And Sunday mornin' comin' down.
--Johnny Cash

Johnny also spoke to me in other ways buy surviving, getting over and moving on. He survived horrid depression, drug and alcohol abuse. He persevered where others may have fallen.

He was the voice of pain and the hope to overcome at the same time.

edc