Getting Proud
by Sondra Ball
You say you ain't proud
of who you are:
just a knock down drunk
under some bridge
clinging to your Wild Turkey;
or maybe somebody bigger,
some suit walking in and out
of revolving doors,
ashamed of where your money's coming from.
You say you ain't proud
of where you've been,
what you've done,
what you've said.
Well, listen up now:
if you ain't proud
of who you are,
what you say,
where you've been,
where you're going;
maybe it's time you stopped
right where you are,
right under that bridge,
right in the middle
of that revolving door.
Stop and picture yourself
standing in the middle
of a golden light,
just glowing with power.
And if you can't do that,
don't worry your head about it none.
Shucks!  That golden light
ain't really much anyway.
Don't give up on yourself
just cause you don't see no light.
You can still get proud.
You don't have to start out
a cold sober hard worker,
nor no lover of humanity neither.
You don't have to know big words,
nor be a great guitar player,
nor make a thousand bucks a week
in order to get proud.
And nobody can give you pride neither.
No social worker can give you pride.
No priest can give you pride.
Pride's something you find on your own.
You start out simple,
doing really little things:
like talking to somebody
about something that matters to you;
or drawing a picture,
not caring whether it's great or not,
just drawing cause you want to;
or going into a prison
to bring the drum
to some brothers and sisters.
You learn pride
just like you learn everything else.
You learn pride by practicing.
         copyright 1997 sondra ball
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ What?  Me compulsive?  I just can't stop doing this stuff
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.1
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