I Shouldn't Think In The Morning
By long standing habit, my clock radio is set to the a country station. I used to like country, not really a fan anymore, but I keep it set there anyway. It just feels weird to wake up to anything else.
So this morning, my alarm goes off promptly at 8 since I have an interview today and I roll over in bed and just lay there, listening to the music. The song was Tim McGraw's Don't take the Girl.
The song revolves around Johnny and this girl and three times when he didn't want her taken somewhere.
-Eight years old, and pleading with his dad not to take her on a fishing trip.
-Sixteen, confronted by a mugger. "Take me instead of her"
-Adulthood, pleading with God not to take her away following the birth of their son. Labor complications. Spoiler: She lives.
As I'm laying there staring at the ceiling, brain firing (barely) on one cylinder he gets to the last part and as Johnny is pleading with God, offering to take her place, it occurs to me; Johnny is a selfish fuck.
While offering to take her place is romantic and all, very noble, it also doesn't say a damn thing about their son. Who's gonna raise the kid if God decides to take them both? Or something happens to him down the road? More to the point, in all three cases, Johnny doesn't want someone to take the girl for entirely selfish reasons. As a kid, because girls have cooties. At sixteen, because let's face it, he's sixteen. And adulthood because he can't live without her instead of thinking about planning for the future and what the hell he's gonna do if she does die. Not one thought for his son. Just him.
Not to mock prayer, of course, but still. Selfish.
So this morning, my alarm goes off promptly at 8 since I have an interview today and I roll over in bed and just lay there, listening to the music. The song was Tim McGraw's Don't take the Girl.
The song revolves around Johnny and this girl and three times when he didn't want her taken somewhere.
-Eight years old, and pleading with his dad not to take her on a fishing trip.
-Sixteen, confronted by a mugger. "Take me instead of her"
-Adulthood, pleading with God not to take her away following the birth of their son. Labor complications. Spoiler: She lives.
As I'm laying there staring at the ceiling, brain firing (barely) on one cylinder he gets to the last part and as Johnny is pleading with God, offering to take her place, it occurs to me; Johnny is a selfish fuck.
While offering to take her place is romantic and all, very noble, it also doesn't say a damn thing about their son. Who's gonna raise the kid if God decides to take them both? Or something happens to him down the road? More to the point, in all three cases, Johnny doesn't want someone to take the girl for entirely selfish reasons. As a kid, because girls have cooties. At sixteen, because let's face it, he's sixteen. And adulthood because he can't live without her instead of thinking about planning for the future and what the hell he's gonna do if she does die. Not one thought for his son. Just him.
Not to mock prayer, of course, but still. Selfish.