Becko & Becky

Last year in Mr. Miller's spanish class, my dear friend Miles began a comic strip. Super Cassie, Cassie being one of the girls in our class, had many, many exciting adventures, including defeating Becca, the evil verb gal. Becca, modeled after myself and a long time joke in the class, was desperatly afraid of irregular verbs. That was how Super Cassie defeated the verb gal, by stating the irregular verbs. Becca was then brought back to life by the gay super hero Josh. However, there was a catch, when people were brought back to life by Josh, they switched sexs. Becca then became conjugated into Becko the transexual. Later on in the comic, Becko, on the Dating Show, meets Becky and falls deeply in love. At some point they are seperated in the depths of hell and then reunited. It is truly a touching story.

This Becko, though not a transexual, is bi. Becko, or Becca has found her Becky *smiles*.

Becky is a freshman at my highschool. She's gorgeous, short and strong. She's smart, though I'm not sure she knows it. She makes me smile and doesn't pressure me to write her notes. She plays soccer and she's pretty damn good at it. She likes me and likes being around me. I like Becky a lot. She helps me smile.

Becky is a little insecure. She doesn't believe in herself at all. *Sighs* People like her are so silly, she is so amazing and yet she can't realize it. I enjoy just being around her so much. Its great.

She's had a hard life, so extremly different than my "perfect" suburbia. She was adopted. When she was three her adopted father was murdered and a year later her adopted mother had a heart attack and died. She went to live with someone else. Then, because of things better not mentioned, she had to move to another family. Her new family was fine until the father cheated on the mother. She, her new mother, and her new sisters moved out. Later the parents got back together. She still doesn't like her dad. She seems so sad sometimes, but with a backround like this I don't see how she can help it. I hope I can help her smile, I think I do.

Like I said, she is gorgeous. She has dirty blond hair with golden highlights, long, curling eye lashes, full red lips and deep brown eyes. She's as tall as Analise was when she and I started dating. When I hug Becky I can set my chin on the top of her head and to tell the truth it feels wonderful. When she smiles she lights up the room. I can't concentrate on homework when shes standing near me. I can't wait until I can find a chance to hold her hand, to hug her for more than five seconds, to look her in the eyes. She likes my eyes..........

*Smiles* I love being happy.

Slide
The Goo Goo Dolls

Could you whisper in my ear
The things you wanna feel
I'd give you anythin'
To feel it comin'

Do you wake up on your own
And wonder where you are?
You live with all your faults

I wanna wake up where you are
I won't say anything at all
So why don't you slide

Yeah, I'm gonna let it slide

Don't you love the life you killed?
The priest is on the phone
Your father hit the wall
Your ma disowned you

Don't supposed I'll ever know
What it means to be a man
It's somethin' I can't change
I'll live around it

I wanna wake up where you are
I won't say anything at all
So why don't you slide
Ooh, slide

And I'll do anythin' you ever dreamed to be complete
Little pieces of the nothin' that fall
Oh, May
Put your arms around me
What you feel is what you are
And what you are is beautiful
Oh, May
Do you wanna get married Or run away?

And I'll do anythin' you ever dreamed to be complete
Little pieces of the nothin' that fall
Oh, May
Put your arms around me
What you feel is what you are
And what you are is beautiful
Oh, May
Do you wanna get married
Or run away?

I wanna wake up where you are
I won't say anything

And I'll do anythin' you ever dreamed to be complete
(Yeah, slide)
Little pieces of the nothin' that fall
(yeah slide)
And I'll do anythin' you ever dreamed to be complete
(Yeah slide)
Little pieces of the nothin' that fall
(Oh, oh slide)
Yeah, slide between the sheets of all them beds you never knew
(Yeah slide)
Why don't you slide into my room
Just slide into my room
Oh, we'll run away, run away, run away

Yes, I know, a September 11th paper fourteen days late......... Sorry, I had to wait for my english teacher to return it. I hope the wait was worth it.


School
By: Rebecca Williams

Everyone has a defining moment in their life- that moment in which time stands still and the door slams shut in our face. For many of us it is a loss of something dear to our hearts. Our faith waivers, our hearts speed and slow sporadically, and we think, oh, oh God: why? We are left with questions unanswered, with feelings yet to be felt and with the venerability of a babe. It is in moments such as these that we learn the most, no matter how painful it might be. It just so happened that much of the world found itself in that state of desolation one day in September during my sophomore year of high school.

I can clearly remember that day, though to tell the truth I wasn’t incredibly affected. I didn’t cry or shake or pray. I simply hugged myself tightly and watched as the screen flashed it’s bright lights and harsh news across the airwaves to my chemistry class. That day I told two people they had made a difference in my life. And as I looked in their eyes I had almost a happy feeling, though inside I felt sick.

The next day I went to See You at the Pole, a Christian prayer session held at the school flag pole once a year. Standing there before the service, I heard several people to my left talking. One of the girls was busy explaining to the others that God had no part in this disaster. God had not wanted this to happen.

How silly what they said sounded. If God had not wanted this to happen, why did it occur? Why would an almighty Being allow anything to come to pass that It’s own divine power had not fashioned? I had my answers, though I could think of plenty of questions for them. To me the world is a classroom, each day another period in school. The only purpose of existing is to learn. The lessons to be learned from this were great, both politically and spiritually. A tragedy of this magnitude was only a full class project, due on some unforeseen day. When I left the vigil, I was one among few in the world who felt that way.

Time continued and life followed, just as life always does. A year of great growth and learning had passed in my life and for a few weeks I felt completely secure in my being. Things could go wrong, and indeed they did; but I could always find my way back to center, back to focus, back to breathing. School was trying, with its AP classes and piles of homework. Marching band was worse with its everyday practices and demands that I must be the perfect leader in every moment of every day. At night I would sit in my backyard by the pool, take deep breaths, and look at the stars, wondering at their beauty. I could find my way back to center, and I felt truly divine.

Homecoming week finally arrived, as did that fateful day in September. As a memorial to those lost and the ones they left behind, a huge assembly of the entire school district was held in the football stadium. As a member of the band, I was required to stand on the field and play the Star Spangled Banner while the ROTC presented the flag. We marched onto the field and proceeded to wait for another thirty minutes. The elementary school students arrived slightly late and their required little bobbing lines slowed down their pace tremendously.

As we stood on the field, the speakers pumped patriotic music forth to the ears of everyone. There was not one song that did not praise the Christian God; even the pledge of allegiance included it. I cannot say that among those waves of red, white, and blue t-shirts, those swaying plastic flags, and those declarations of “everyone’s” God, that I felt secure in my being.

Finally we played the anthem and marched to our seats. The entire drum line, excluding myself, began to wrap their white sticks in blue and red tape. The poked, nagged, and repeatedly asked me to join them. I did not. As the service continued, more ‘God bless yous” were said, and more flags were raised. The band was required to rise for several religious, patriotic songs. Many times my hand formed a peace sign and my beliefs rode upon those tormenting waves of patriotic pride. When we eventually sat, I wrote “Give peace a chance” on the palm of my hand. Though I wished for an end of war, what I really wanted was peace of mind.

After the two-and-a-half hour service was through, we carried our chairs back to the band hall and returned to our classes. I have long been in the minority of people during my life. Different beliefs, different thoughts, different feelings have set me apart in this lifetime, yet I have never felt as alone as I did during that rally with the “brothers and sisters” of my nation, “under God.” I have never felt more outcast or painfully unique in those two and a half hours and the lunch that followed. It was not until later that day in English that I would realize what jewels that experience had brought me.

The world is a classroom, each day another period in school. Our lessons are events, events that we relentlessly take notes on, gathering data and forming our own conclusions. It is those defining moments which shape our lives. September 11th, 2002, a year after the terrorist attacks, I had my own defining moment. People are where they need to be, traveling down their own paths and across their own classrooms. We find ourselves in each moment only to life and to live is in essence to learn. We are not here by some huge astronomical coincidence, but because in this moment we are meant to learn and do great things with our existence. Everyone is on his or her way to enlightenment one life lesson at a time. Amen.


Ireland
Garth Brooks

They say mother earth is breathing
With each wave that finds the shore
Her soul rises in the evening
For to open twilights door
Her eyes are the stars in heaven
Watching o'er us all the while
And her heart it is in Ireland
Deep within the Emerald Isle

We are forty against hundreds
In someone elses bloody war
We know not why were fighting
Or what we're dying for
They will storm us in the morning
When the sunlight turns to sky
Death is waiting for its dance now
Fate has sentenced us to die

Ireland I am coming home
I can see your rolling fields of green
And fences made of stone
I am reaching out won't you take my hand
I'm coming home Ireland

Oh the captian he lay bleeding
I can hear him calling me
These men are yours now for the leading
Show them to their destiny
And as I look up all around me
I see the ragged tired and torn
I tell them to make ready
'Cause we're not waiting for the morn

Ireland I am coming home
I can see your rolling fields of green
And fences made of stone
I am reaching out won't you take my hand
I'm coming home Ireland

Now the fog is deep and heavy
As we forge the dark and fear
We can hear their horses breathing
As in silence we draw near
There are no words to be spoken
Just a look to say good-bye
I draw a breath and night is broken
AsI scream our battle cry

Ireland I am coming home
I can see your rolling fields of green
And fences made of stone
I am reaching out won't you take my hand
I'm coming home Ireland

I am home Ireland

Excerpts of a Meaningful Conversation


Casey Snead: I really find girls attractive a LOT by their attitudes but I still can't help but like her because we used to be so close it dosn't just go away.
dabopgk: yeah, i know what you mean
Casey Snead: Like your attitude.
Casey Snead: It's like one of the top sexiest attitudes ever.
dabopgk: lol, thanks


Casey Snead: I've been wondering a lot about somethin'...
dabopgk: what?
Casey Snead: What would you change to make yourself look more attractive?
dabopgk: me?
Casey Snead: Yeah.
Casey Snead: I get a feeling you want something different about you.
Casey Snead: Your attitude reflects somebody that would never answer that question because you are happy with anything and what you get.
dabopgk: yeah, i was going to say "well, i think i'm pretty darn hot so i'm good"
Casey Snead: Hehe.
dabopgk: well, i guess i don't know, i just really want to be able to have a meaningful relationshiop
dabopgk: ship
Casey Snead: What do you mean by meaningful?
Casey Snead: Having somebody you can really connect with?
dabopgk: i don't know what i would change, because i can only be me, but i just want a best best friend or a best girl/boyfriend
Casey Snead: That's cool.
Casey Snead: I've always wanted someone to be able to always understand me.
dabopgk: yeah, that is what i would love to have, someone who understands me
Casey Snead: Someone that would feel like their so close enough to actually be in a relationship but are there for you even when your with someone else.
dabopgk: yeah
Casey Snead: Well hey ^_^
Casey Snead: It could happen.
dabopgk: and it will, we just have to wait
Casey Snead: Find that someone that's perfect to nobody but you.


Casey Snead: There's a lot I don't know about you isn't there?
dabopgk: it depends on what you want to know
Casey Snead: I know you and everything.
Casey Snead: But I feel like there's no past.
Casey Snead: Our friendship is based only on the future.
Casey Snead: All of your other friends seem to have a past world they all share with you.
dabopgk: what do ya wanna know babe, you can know all of it
dabopgk: nah, we've just known each other longer, just had more experinces together
Casey Snead: I can't ask to know what I don't know to ask.
dabopgk: i don't know what to say then
dabopgk: lol
Casey Snead: ^_^
Casey Snead: Have you always played the drums?
dabopgk: since the moment i could hit stuff lol, it runs in my veins
dabopgk: how long have you been doing judo, or wait, does donovan do judo?
Casey Snead: Heh.
Casey Snead: Me and him both did it for 5 years.
Casey Snead: We don't anymore.
Casey Snead: I take taikwondo now though.
dabopgk: why not?
Casey Snead: We just stopped.
Casey Snead: It's just like, when an artist feels like drawing, and they keep drawing, but then they just stop and don't think twice about it.
dabopgk: good analogy
Casey Snead: Hehe...
Casey Snead: It's just I'm an artist to.
Casey Snead: I stopped drawing.
Casey Snead: I don't know why I stopped but I did.
dabopgk: sometimes its just time to move on


Casey Snead: That little hole inside of me I feel when I think about you probably won't ever be filled.
Casey Snead: That we have no past, but I think maybe if we know each other more this will be that past to fill that hole.
dabopgk: it'll work out babe, don't get stressed about knowing me, it'll come in time
Casey Snead: Your a mysterious person though.
Casey Snead: True mysterious and SILLY :p don't really mix together.
dabopgk: how am i mysterious?
Casey Snead: But it's like there is something underneath your sillyness like you have some kind of serious emotion you want to let out with someone.
dabopgk: yeah
dabopgk: yeah thats in me too
dabopgk: i want people to understand and i want to understand people
dabopgk: i don't know what that means though
Casey Snead: Hehe.
Casey Snead: It sounds like what we were talkin' about earlier, finding someone that just, knows.
dabopgk: yeah, but i want everyone to understand, to get what... what whatever it is, is
Casey Snead: That will never happen though..
Casey Snead: Not everyone will ever understand.
dabopgk: it could happen man


Casey Snead: I feel like when you die here on Earth that there's a time everyone will be able to just know.
dabopgk: yeah
Casey Snead: They'll be able to just move into you and know how you feel and what your thinking and have ever thought.
Casey Snead: Kind of like souls putting themselves together.
dabopgk: yeah, i'm feeling that
Casey Snead: I wish I could just merge my soul into you for a while.
dabopgk: do you think you could figure me out?
Casey Snead: I don't know..
Casey Snead: I feel like if I could do that that somehow I'd just feel better about you. Like I'd be able to just have a shared feeling.
dabopgk: why do you feel bad about me?
Casey Snead: I don't really feel bad about you, just not good.
dabopgk: how so?
Casey Snead: Something is just lacking.
Casey Snead: Like it's not enough how I know you now.
dabopgk: give it time babe

dabopgk: whatcha thinkin?
Casey Snead: My ex-gf is having boyfriend problems.
dabopgk: thats no good
Casey Snead: Yeah..
Casey Snead: I try to be helpful.
Casey Snead: My two ex-gf's I try to stay really close with.
dabopgk: thats cool
Casey Snead: When I love someone it never goes away.
dabopgk: what do you mean?
Casey Snead: So many people just throw their love away.
Casey Snead: They break up, and they don't have anything.
dabopgk: good way to think of it


Casey Snead: Man...
dabopgk: ?
Casey Snead: I don't get why it's hard for me to hear about my ex's doing things..
dabopgk: cause you still have feelings for them
Casey Snead: Yeah..
Casey Snead: I guess that is why most people lose their feelings when they break up.
Casey Snead: It's easier to just not care.
Casey Snead: It's like my heart skips a beat everytime I hear about them having a boyfriend or being in love.
dabopgk: well, sometimes you just have to let go babe


Casey Snead: Hrmm...
Casey Snead: I've been thinking a lot about getting a girlfriend.
Casey Snead: That's one of my problems, getting a girlfriend.
Casey Snead: It's not that I can't get one, it's that I can't bring myself to accept one.
dabopgk: how so?
Casey Snead: It's like..
Casey Snead: I've never been able to say yes to going out with a girl yet.
dabopgk: ?
Casey Snead: I guess I'm not boyfriend material :p
dabopgk: thats like me saying i'm not girlfriend material, its just simply not true
Casey Snead: Hehe, sneakily complimenting yourself I see :p
dabopgk: complimenting the both of us you bum
Casey Snead: ^_^
Casey Snead: Silly silly..
Casey Snead: So...
Casey Snead: The funny part is...
Casey Snead: We both don't have anybody :p
dabopgk: i chose not to at the moment, i could if i really wanted to *blushes and thinks beccas silly*
Casey Snead: ^_^
Casey Snead: Just like me huh, I have like a whole waiting list :p
dabopgk: that sounds really big headed, but i'm only stating the truth
dabopgk: yeah, me too
Casey Snead: It's just some girls that want me as a boyfriend.
Casey Snead: It dosn't mean how serious they are though.
Casey Snead: Honestly most of them probably don't want anything meaningful.
dabopgk: that sucks
Casey Snead: Yup ^_^
Casey Snead: But I have only had meaningful.
Casey Snead: Sometimes I just want somebody just to have.
dabopgk: i know what you mean
Casey Snead: Not that afterwards I wouldn't still share a lot with the person.
dabopgk: yeah, i get what you're saying, you just want someone to hold, someone that holds you back
Casey Snead: Yeah..


Casey Snead: Hey.
Casey Snead: I have to get ready to go.
dabopgk: ok, bye babe
dabopgk: *hugs*
Casey Snead: It was great talking to you Rebecca.
Casey Snead: And thank you for cheering me up so much last night in my crazyness.
dabopgk: it was great talking to you babe
dabopgk: lol, no problem babe
Casey Snead: ^_^
Casey Snead: *hugs you* bye
dabopgk: bye bye casey, see you tomorrow
dabopgk: bye
Casey Snead signed off at 6:05:43 PM.


Closing Time
Semi-Sonic

Closing time - time for you to go out, go out into the world.
Closing time - turn the lights up over every boy and every girl.
Closing time - one last call for alcohol, so finish your whiskey or beer.
Closing time - you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.

I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
Take me home...

Closing time - time for you to go back to the places you will be from.
Closing time - this room won't be open 'til your brothers or you sisters come.
So gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits - I hope you have found a
friend.
Closing time - every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Yeah, I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
Take me home...

Closing time - time for you to go back to the places you will be from...

I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
Take me home...

Closing time - every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...

SLEEPZZZZZZZZZ...............zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I am a tired, sleepy, almost but not quite crabby girl right now. I have math homework to do *pouts* but I don't have any other homework *celebrates*. It makes me happy.

Austin people are slowly losing their influence on my life. Analise's name hasn't popped up randomly in my head in the past couple days, but I guess thats because I'm busy thinking about the new girl in my life- Keri.

Keri is a very attractive freshman colorguard member in my highschool band. I'm a junior. It works just fine unless I try to have a conversation with her. I think she might be a little intimidated by my *great* mind lol. I'm a thinker and some people seem to find me crazy for it, but, well, I like it.

Anyways, I'm debating what to do with the situation. I'm completely out at my highschool, and Keri hasn't even told her best friend. I want the whole hand holding and flirting and everything but I don't know if I'm willing to compromise Keri's reputation at school for that. Joshua is a MEAN place sometimes, a very mean place. Society here seems to like to pick on the individual. Anyone who sticks out of the group, whether it be by sexuality, religion, intelligence, or out look on life is picked on or pointed at or whispered about around the school. I'm in kind of a bad situation, being bi, nonchristian, the weird kind of smart and having a very hippy view of the world. I digress. I've been where Keri is heading and that girl is to sweet to be placed in that position. However, the way she keeps nudging me along is hard to resist.....

Oh well, whatever will be will be.................

The Middle
Jimmy Eat World

Hey, don't write yourself off yet
It's only in your head you feel left out
or looked down on.
Just try your best, try everything you can.
And don't you worry what they tell themselves when you're away.
It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle, it'll up the ride.
Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be allright (alright).
Hey, you know they're all the same.
You know you're doing better on your own, so don't buy in.
Live right now.
Yeah, just be yourself.
It doesn't matter if it's good enough for someone else.
It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be allright (alright).
It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be allright (alright).
Hey, don't write yourself off yet.
It's only in your head you feel left out or
looked down on.
Just do your best, do everything you can.
And don't you worry what the bitter hearts are gonna say.
It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be allright (alright).
It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be allright (alright)

Today is the day

I don't know exactly what it's the day for, but it's obviously for something... right? Yeah, so, anyways........

It's kind of weird that I can automaticly tell the artist of a song I've never heard before just by listening to the guitar intro. Sometimes I just know things.

I'm feeling a little bit better about life now that I've chilled after church. I was a bit upset when we left but I've read a book, cover to cover, and I feel lighter. Illusions by Richard Bach is an amazing book. I love this man's writing. I've read Jonathan Livingston Seagull also and I love both. I really want to get ahold of One too, but I haven't been able to yet.

Wow. What a thought!!! We are divinely inspired. That's so simple isn't it? Yeah, most things in life are.

Everything in life is only an illusion. We can change things by simply wanting to change them, but only if we believe we can. Why do we chose to limit ourselves? Are we afraid of failure? Of disappointment? Or of actually accomplishing what we set out to do? I think sometimes we are afraid of success. Crazy human beings.....

I want to fly. My definition of true freedom is flight. When I am truly happy I feel as if I've been lifted of the ground and I'm soaring. I want to fly.

I'm afraid of failure though. I'm afraid to try because I might look silly. I'm afraid because I just might do it and then what do I do? I'm going to fly some day, literally or metaphsically, which ever way you would like to take it.

I love thinking. What a beautiful mechanisms are we!!! We can think and process and challange ourselves to learn. We can be afraid and fight through it, we can be happy and let ourselves be afraid. We can help people.

We realize, I realize, that I am here in this moment for a reason and that no matter what happens, all is good and god and well. In a wordly sense that is.

Well, yeah, so, anyways, I needed the above reminder. I'm talking to someone who I'm worried about liking and worried about not liking, but only in the friend sense. If that makes sense.......

Standing Outside The Fire
Garth Brooks

We call them cool
Those hearts that have no scars to show
The ones that never do let go
And risk the tables being turned

We call them fools
Who have to dance within the flame
Who chance the sorrow and the shame
That always comes with getting burned

But you've got to be tough when consumed by desire
'Cause it's not enough just to stand outside the fire

We call them strong
Those who can face this world alone
Who seem to get by on their own
Those who will never take the fall

We call them weak
Who are unable to resist
The slightest chance love might exist
And for that forsake it all

They're so hell-bent on giving ,walking a wire
Convinced it's not living if you stand outside the
fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you're standing outside the fire

There's this love that is burning
Deep in my soul
Constantly yearning to get out of control
Wanting to fly higher and higher
I can't abide
Standing outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you're standing outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you're standing outside the fire

It's time for me to get a life

It's time for me to find a life in Joshua, its time to live where I'm at instead of trying to live in Austin. It's time to stop living in a dream and start living in my reality. It's time to stop living a life where I spend my Saturday nights calling people three hundred miles away, only to find that they're living their life out with their friends. It's time to go out and have fun and experince people more than I experince voices coming from a piece of plastic. It's time to center myself and to have a life and exist where I live. It is time.

I feel such beasts of animosity rise inside of me when I think these thoughts. I am quieting them with deep breaths and logical thinking. God knows I love logic.

I feel to connected to these wonderful people. It is a great drain on me to be so connected and so greatly displaced. Its time to be rally friends instead of best friends. I need to talk to people from Joshua instead of Austin. I love them though, I truly do.

When I called yesterday, her mom told me that she was in the hospital. My heart, the movement of my blood lurched to a stop. I stopped breathing until the moment her mother said that Analise had been in the hospital last night. She had a kidney stone, but she was ok.

I called Analise last night and we talked for less then thirty minutes. She was tired and didn't feel amazing, but didn't feel bad. I felt sick the entire time I talked to her. I still love her. I do. I feel better for just admitting it too.

I'm ready to let go of that obessionistic love I have had for that beautiful person. I'm ready to disconnect that miraclous connection thats kept me going for a year. Its time to grow apart, we've served our purposes in each others life. It's good to let go now.

I'm learning to breathe and meditate and become still. Peace be still, and know that I am god. I'm learning to know I am god and that god is everpresent in my life and in all things. I'm learning to breathe.

Life is a game of shoots and ladders. We climb and climb and then slip down those tubes of mistakes, only to find the lesson at the end of the tunnel. Then we climb again, and slide again. The learning, the mistakes only lead to the best part- the realization.

I've given up shame. I will not be ashamed to be myself any longer. I am beautiful and perfect and wonderful and I am whole.

I am calm.


The General
Dispatch

There was a decorated General with a heart of gold
That likened him to all the stories he told,
Of past battles won and lost
And legends of old
A seasoned veteran in his own time

On the battlefield he gained respectful fame
With many medals of bravery and stripes to his name
He grew a beard as soon as he could to cover the scars on his face
And always urged his men on

But on the eve of a great battle with all the infantry in dream
The Old General tossed in his sleep and wrestled with its meaning
He awoke from the night just to tell what he had seen
And walked slowly out of his tent

All the men stood tall with their chests in the air
With courage in their blood and a fire in their stare
It was a gray morning and they were all wondering how they would fare
Till the old general told them to go home

He said: I have seen the others
And I have discovered
That this fight is not worth fighting
And I have seen their mothers
And I will no other, to follow me where I'm going

So

Take a shower, shine your shoes
You got no time to lose
You are young man you must be living
Take a shower, shine your shoes
You got no time to lose
You are young man you must be living
Go now you are forgiven

But the men stood fast with their guns on their shoulders
Not knowing what to do with the contradicting orders
The General said he would do his duty but he would extend it no further
The men can go as they please

Not a man moved their eyes gazed straight ahead,
Till one by one they stepped back and not a word was said
And the old general was left with his own words echoing in his head
He then prepared to fight

He said: I have seen the others
And I have discovered
That this fight is not worth fighting
No, I have seen their mothers
and I will no other
to follow me where I'm going

So

Take a shower shine your shoes
You got no time to lose
You're young and you must be living
Take a shower shine your shoes
You got no time to lose
You're young and you must be living
Go now you are forgiven

Go now you are forgiven,
Go now you are forgiven,
Go now you are forgiven,
Go now you are forgiven,
Go now you are forgiven,
Go now you are forgiven,
Go now you are forgiven,
Go now you are forgiven,
Go now you got to be,
Got to be,
Got to be,
Got to be,
Got to be yeah