Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Singing "Woodstock" with my Daughter

We were on our way back from rehab.  My daughter is 16 and has a drug problem.  Her drugs of choice are LSD and pot.   We put her in rehab after she got kicked out of her third high school.  She is currently not in school -- she will take the GED and depend on her excellent exam scores to get into college.  So we were driving back, and I had my iPod connected to the tape deck, and she was fooling around with it.  "May I play some songs?" she asked.  "Sure," I said.  She put on Bob Dylan.  "Everyone Must Get Stoned."  I asked, "Isn't this a little contradictory, playing this Dylan song on the way back from rehab."  "Oh, it's not really about drugs," she said.  "It's political."  I hadn't listened to the words to this song in years, so I sat quietly for a while while the song played out.  "You're right.  How did you know that?"  "It's obvious.  How about some Neil Young?"  She played a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song.  It was "Woodstock."  "Joni Mitchell wrote this, did you know that?"  'No."  "Well she did."  We sat for a moment until the lyrics began, and then both of us started to sing at the top of our lungs.  We sang our hearts out.  "I came across a child of God, he was walking along the road..."  I couldn't believe we were sitting in the car singing to my favorite songs.  I never expected this from my daughter who is 39 years younger than I am.   I guess I did something right.

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