Sunday, October 4, 2009

The Sunday Morning Muse, October 4, 2009


Janis Joplin died 39 years ago at the age of 27. Janis once said "Don't compromise yourself. You're all you've got."
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Simple thought, but deep in its meaning. I think she pretty much lived life on her own terms. The drug and alcohol abuse aside, I'm talking about the way she expanded her life, moving out of that Port Arthur Texas town where she never fit in, and found a place to bloom. She could have compromised. She had some talent in art. Maybe in some alternate universe, there is a Janis Joplin who continued her education and got an art degree. She may have taught art at a community college, settled into a small town, married, had children. That woman would be alive somewhere today. Not dead at age 27.
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But the world would never have known that incredible voice.

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