A pair of songs from 1990 and 91, both of which bring me to my mother and to the hope for peace in the world and the need to tell the people you love that you love them. From A Distance was released during the Gulf War and the Divine Miss M belted out our need for peace already, our need to stop all this senseless shit. Shortly thereafter came Get Here by Oleta Adams, whose angelic voice was a harbinger of the desperation of holding the ones you loved as close as possible. This all while I was in the process of finally coming out to my mother and hoping I’d never need to yearn for her with the possibility of being shunned and excommunicated. Looking back and hearing these songs today, I celebrate the strength of character my mother had, in the face of what others would think. She loved me no matter what, proving she was one classy bitch. As a post script, one of the final voicemails from my sister (that is saved in my VMs if I ever need to hear her beautiful little voice again, thankfully) was that she called just to tell me From A Distance was on and she knew Mommy was there with her, helping her stay strong. Insert waterworks here.
From the historical writing archive. Original date: November 28, 2015. Recovered from local source material; editorial review is still in progress.
