Abnormally Attracted to Din

I love Tori Amos. Some of her songs are so deep, and leave you hanging...like 'Welcome to England.' I need to figure out what I like about this being left hanging lesson. It's on repeat. It must be a Good one I really need to learn. This song initially caught my eye because of the title. I used to give parents with children who have special needs a poem called "Welcome to Holland" (see below). It was a little hope while they coped. I feel like divorcees should read it to. Welcome to your new world. You didn't plan the trip, but now that you're here, you better get on with it and be grateful and happy and have some faith that in the end, there will be a victory.


Welcome to England's message is a lot less obvious.

"Welcome To England"by Tori Amos

Do a dance for me
Baby it is late still you pour me
a tall one...
Go on, let the liquid take off what you're on.

You’ve been down before
Boy and I like this
I’m in quicksand
I am sinking fast

Perfect, heal it
Because your other half has got himself
A devil’s excess or Access

Welcome to England, he said
Welcome to my World

You better bring your own sun, sweet girl
You gotta bring your own sun
Don’t you forget your
Bring your own sun
Just enough for everyone

Heels on, go on
Bang a tango but do not get tangled
Who can stay strong
When they only give us lies to lean on

When your heart explodes
Is it deathly cold
You must let the colors violate the
Backness the rest
A magic world in parallel
So leave your daily hell

Welcome to England, he said
Welcome to my World

It’s not a question, if I can
Fight by your side
And withstand
Anything but
But I forgot
That you said, girl
If you come…

You better bring your own sun, sweet girl
You gotta bring your own sun
Don’t you forget your…
Bring your own sun
Just enough for everyone

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley

     I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

     When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

     But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

 So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

     It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

     But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.