@JulesJeffs sent me this video of Janis Joplin. (Julie’s blog) There is only one story I can write when I hear Joplin. It’s about the summer I started reading Kerouac and Dostoevsky and cheating on my boyfriend and smoking pot. Condemn me now if you want to, it ain’t no gateway drug or I’d be living a different life right now. Instead I found the kind of love I didn’t need to stone myself for and I started being honest. But that was later. In 1993 I was off into the world at 18 without anything specific to my name. This is where I tell you I don’t believe in guidance counselors, don’t believe most public school education sets us up for any good damn thing and that there were only English teachers who ever gave me a nod. And only a few of them were any good. I talked about anger. I told you about not having any bearings on myself. I had a whole rolly-polly life, like when you get a flat tire and the car wants to go one way and you want it to go another. More...