Proudly 32 Flavors and then some...My love for Ani DiFranco and finding your anthem.

I've mentioned probably a thousand times that Im a music lover. It is on constantly wherever I am. I was raised in a household where music was playing all the time, and even though I can't carry a tune in a bucket, I am a closet singer (or just plain painful to those of you who do hear me!) and music and lyrics have always been one of the ways I can express myself best.  The generation of the "mixed tape" was created for people like me. I had one for every mood, every ex and every day.

It has also made me fiercely loyal to certain artists over the years, especially those who I relate to lyrically. Sometimes I'm in a funk, its raining, and I curl up with a book, coffee and the Counting Crows. Or I listen to RayLaMontagne to inspire me artistically. But sometimes, I just need a kick in the butt. Pink usually fits this bill fairly well, especially if I need my butt kicked to the gym.

 But then, there are those artists that you relate to SO well, and who have inspired you to be YOU. And they do that just by seemingly being THEM.  Ani DiFranco has always been that artist for me. I began listening to her well over a decade ago, and I've seen her live many times. Each time, she relights the fire I need to always have burning.  Her music speaks to many phases, stages and parts of my life.

Over the years, I've listened to one specific song of hers, and knew that one day I would be able to sing along with total confidence that I meant every single word and I could have written this song. You know, if I could sing at all or write music even a little. Which I can't. But since I can't do either of these things, I write about it. And I have always felt that it suited me, I am indeed just a little bit beyond some people's peripheral vision, I do consider myself a phoenix now, and I will not give my own life meaning by demeaning someone else. And I am proudly, 32 flavors and then some.

 And I hope that you have an anthem, or a song that you feel moves you to action. Towards the action of being proudly you. This is mine:

32 FLAVORS, by Ani DiFranco

Squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Because someday you're going to get hungry
And eat most of the words you just said

Both my parents taught me about goodwill
And I have done well by their names
Just the kindness I've lavished on strangers
Is more than I can explain
Still there's many who've turned out their porch lights
Just so I would think they were not home
And hid in the dark of their windows
Until I'd passed and left them alone

And God help you if you are an ugly girl
Course too pretty is also your doom
Because everyone harbors a secret hatred
For the prettiest girl in the room
And God help you if you are a phoenix
And you dare to rise up from the ash
A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy
While you are just flying past

I'm not trying to give my life meaning
By demeaning you
And I would like to state for the record
I did everything that I could do
I'm not saying that I'm a saint
I just don't want to live that way
No, I will never be a saint
But I will always say

Squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Because someday you might find you're starving
And eating all of the words you said