Mighty Miss

I was a really good journaler when I was in high school. Really good. I wrote poetry every night, recapped my day, ranted, raved, confessed, etc. Really bared my soul to those pages.

But here’s the thing about when you REALLY bare your soul, especially as an angst-ridden teen — those words should never see the light of day. EVER. I held onto them into adulthood, but they were a liability in my mind. And I didn’t have a paper shredder.

So I burned them. 

And it felt great.

Their purpose was fulfilled as soon as I filled each book. I remembered the lyrics that I wanted to, I got off my chest what I needed to get off my chest, and I processed the thoughts that I needed to process. There was no reason to keep them. And if I didn’t get rid of them, someone would eventually find them. So when they were reduced to ash, I felt measurably lighter.

I burned them next to the Mississinewa River one afternoon. And several years later, I went mushroom hunting in the nearby timber, and when I was done, I filmed an OP-1 video on the river bank. That OP-1 jam became the bones of Mighty Miss, and the liberating experience of burning my journals became the lyrics.

There’s no big story behind the outro and saxophone solo, other than the fact that it sounds super cool.