San Francisco Mabel Joy in General

I got up this morning intending to take a long walk. But it was cold. And I was too lazy to put on sweats.

Okay. “Cold” needs a qualifier. All summer long I wear an Under Armour tank and shorts. So. 47F is just on the chilly side of chilly. I’m noticing the sun has taken to trolling around the horizon again. It is still August, and September has been known to be quite hot in Maine. But here it comes again.

I’m not complaining. Truth is I love the changing seasons. I missed it when I lived out west.
I walked out to the street. Stood in the early morning sun and wondered whether I could walk fast enough to warm up substantially. There was a north breeze, and once in the woods that was going to make my walk on the edge of cold.

I turned around and looked at the white Ford Fusion Hybrid occupying my garage, I realized I still hadn’t named her.

I toyed with Daenerys. And it popped into my head.

Mabel Joy.

Recognizing the fact that we all have a fucking supercomputer between our ears, I don’t know why I am surprised when things I haven’t heard or listened to, or thought about in decades can come blasting back into my head, unbidden.

That line from the song, when Mabel Joy is introduced.

”Destitutions child born on an L.A. street called shame…”

It crushed me when I was a teenager. It still kinda hurts. I was never a Georgia farm boy, I never took a train to LA. I never met a girl named Mabel Joy – which really sounds more like a Georgia name than a California name – but that’s not really here nor there is it? But that line stabs me in the heart, and reminds me how amazingly powerful words can be.

Last updated August 26, 2019