Kill A Word

Country Singer Eric Church

In this time of increasing vitriol, snide texts and embarrassing revelations, one is left wishing that some of this posturing would simply go away ... and yes, leave us alone.

 One of the things that I have learned to appreciate, after a lifetime of belittling it, is Country Music. I guess it was after reading that Country Music outsold Rock 'N Roll by a margin of about 3 to 1 that I began to notice and well, wonder why. Family members had met some stars in Nashville and were amazed at how friendly and chatty they were. Try that with a rock star!

  When the classical music station, 105.3, in Los Angeles, was sold and became a country station I hadn't realized it until one day wanting something soothing to listen too, I punched my pre-sets and there it was ... twangy guitars, sad, SAD songs or as one friend said, "Play it backward and your wife leaves, you're fired, the dog dies and there's no more beer!" I laughed then and even now but its both cynical and true! After I heard the song "I'm Gonna Miss Her" that relates the tale of a guy hooked on fishing and his wife's threat to leave him if he went one more time, I nearly wrecked my truck laughing when the chorus begins, "I'm gonna miss her ..."

   After actually listening I began to realize that yes, there are sad songs but they are sad and some are happy songs that truly reflect our common situations, not the endless banality of love songs. Sure there are love songs but there are songs about losing a mate, a wife, a child, losing your job, how will you make ends meet. These are the facts of life and they resonate with many of the disenchanted in this country today that are living daily with this reality.

   So my iPhone has a dedicated Country music list and playing it today it happened to play Eric Church's KILL A WORD. I hope that he won't mind but here are the lyrics:

Kill A Word

Eric Church

If I could kill a word and watch it die
I'd poison never, shoot goodbye
Beat regret when I felt I had the nerve
Yeah, I'd pound fear to a pile of sand
Choke lonely out with my bare hands
I'd hang hate so that it can't be heard
If I could only kill a word

I'd take brokenness out back
And break heartbreak, stand there and laugh
Right in its face while shootin' it the bird
I'd put upset down in its place
I'd squeeze the life out of disgrace
Lay over under six cold feet of dirt
If I could only kill a word

Give me sticks, give stones
Bend my body, break my bones
Use staff and rod to turn me black and blue
'Cause you can't unhear, you can't unsay
But if were up to me to change
I'd turn lies and hate to love and truth
If I could only kill a word

I'd knock out temptation's teeth
I'd sever evil, let it bleed
Then light up wicked, stand and watch it burn
I'd take vice and I'd take vile
And tie 'em up there with hostile
Hang 'em high and leave 'em for the birds
If I could only kill a word

So give me sticks, give stones
Bend my body, break my bones
Use staff and rod to turn me black and blue
'Cause you can't unhear, you can't unsay
But if were up to me to change
I'd turn lies and hate to love and truth
If I could only kill a word
If I could only kill a word

Songwriters: Eric Church / Jeff Hyde / Luke Dick

Kill A Word lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

   I stopped what I was doing and considered. Isn't this what we want in our lives? I've written about turning out the noise. Watching the evening news I find that it is both beyond what any fiction writer might ever write (unless you're a lawyer, of course where fiction is a daily reality) and submitting a manuscript with this garbage would get you laughed out the door ... well, until maybe today!

   The Trump show is unlike anything we have ever experienced though a recent TED TALK made me even question that. Any student of history, especially American history, realizes that this discord, mudslinging and histrionics is anything but new. While we treasure our Constitution its creation was anything but measured and gracious. We had garrulous, opinionated souls that had strong opinions, not unlike the same ideologies that clashed during our Civil War that on reflection was anything but civil. Many a historian would say the 1790 Constitution set the seeds of 1861 war, and maybe, just maybe what we see and hear on the news today ... each AND every day.

   His lyrics echo the sentiments of many. Don't we all wish some of the words we use would, well, be killed? Life is just too precious and short for us to live with our tensions, fears, hates, vitriol.

   Now I am not suggesting that we shouldn't disagree but once and at various times this country and the world as well, could bring their beliefs to the table and work out a compromise that could work. We are literally a country that grew to greatness by being able to work things out. The musical HAMILTON recounts a man who clashed with James Madison, who pretty much wrote the Constitution and was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr. This isn't the only time in our history with personages of titanic egos. Hopefully, today, there won't be early morning duels on the D.C. Mall!

However, the recent shooting of Congressmen practicing baseball shows just how dark the rhetoric has become.

   The time has come for both sides to bury the hatchet and listen, really listen to each other, find common ground and then begin listening to their constituents, make reasonable decisions realizing that no one will get all they want but work towards bettering the lives of all ... not some privileged minority.

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where the emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! Be sure to check my re-opened ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. Many of the items talked about here are for sale there!