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A<\/span> thanksgiving song.<\/p>\n I’m at that point in my life when I’m mostly beyond being afraid for myself, but like anyone, I have my moments of darkness and doubt.<\/p>\n When things are darkest… I count my blessings.<\/p>\n It’s a tactic that not only dovetails nicely with my innate perversity, but which has served me well over the years. As I mentioned in a previous post, 25 years ago (last month) I was hit by an inattentive driver while riding my motorcycle and ended up in the hospital for 2 months (most of that in traction) with an “exploded” hip, a smashed femur, and a shattered ankle.<\/p>\n They pieced me back together (my ex-rays look like I was attacked by the contents of a hardware store), but there were some tough times along the way, I was on crutches for 6 months and a cane for 5 years. (Turned out I was walking on a leg that was still broken. Long story that reinforces the importance of second opinions, which I discovered late.)<\/p>\n Anyhow, the thing is, when things got tough, as they occasionally did, I counted my blessings. (I used to feel bitter that I didn’t have any shoes until I saw a man who didn’t have any feet. <\/span>You know?)<\/p>\n I also drank… I’d say ‘but that’s another story’ — but it’s actually this<\/span> story, or more properly the story of this song.<\/p>\n A<\/span>t any rate, here’s a guy who, I’m thinking, is living in that tiny postage-stamp sized bit of grace afforded those with little left to lose…<\/p>\n These lyrics were originally written as a sort of rap to go with music from Brit techno whizkid Deakin Scott but, while Deakin and I collaborated more or less successfully on an earlier track (the lyrics for which are my “Mountains Come, Mountains Go”) the track these were written for never came together and I finally sat down with my acoustic guitar a few months later and came up, more or less, with these chords.<\/p>\n I say ‘more or less’ because I actually had all but forgotten this song and before yesterday and had quite likely not played it twice since 1999. A shame, since I really like it. It’s not the first song I’ve written or track I’ve recorded in a ‘creative phase’ that’s gone forgotten for a long period after the arc of sometimes fevered productivity has passed.<\/p>\n\n