WHAT I'VE LEARNED
"What I've Learned is how
You can fill life with regrets
And, you think you've fooled them all
But, in truth they won't forget
Respect is never promised
Love ain't free
Trust is earned
And, it hurts to be alone
This is What I've Learned ..."
- Tomás G Robinson, What I've Learned, 2013

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SIGN ‘O THE TIMES

“It’s silly, no?
When a rocket ship explodes
and everybody still wants to fly
Some say a man ain’t happy
Less a man, truly dies
Oh why
Oh why
Sign ‘O The Times”

I guess I’ve been dreading reaching the end of yet another year that will add to the number of, years now, I guess, that Prince has been gone. Not quite two – but, from 2016 we go to 2017, and now soon 2018 …. It’s all so fast. Time is fleeting.

The club we belong to now is one of appreciation. No one wanted to join this club. The club wasn’t anyone’s idea. We just automatically became members when he died. Our level of fandom peaked. It will never go higher than it was at its peak, because he’ll never do anything that would create the kind of buzz he created, and he’s needed to make it happen.

So, we have resolved to continue to post our thoughts, remembrances, pain, hopes, inquiries and reviews about Prince, even when there is no more Prince to do that for or about.

U GOT THE LOOK

“U got the look
It must have took
A whole hour just to make up your face, baby
Closing time, ugly lights, everybody’s inspected
But, you are a natural beauty unaffected
Did I say an hour?
My face is red
I stand corrected”

But, that’s the beauty of this sad and lonely club we’re in. No one asked us to join because that’s how the club picks its members. Yeah, that’s right, the club picks you.

In order for the club to continue to grow, and people continue to join, all that was needed was those who loved him and mourned him gathered and expressed ourselves in every real and revealing way.

We cried, we sobbed, actually.
We were shoulders for others to cry on.
We eulogized and we were the information data base that those who didn’t know came to so that they would know. That’s what this club did. Or does.

And that’s how it was created - It appeared.
It just was there.
No membership fines here.
No bylaws.
No pressing engagements.

HOUSEQUAKE

"Shut up already, damn!
Tell me who in this house know about the quake?
(We do)
I mean really, really
If you know how to rock say 'yeah'
(yeah)
If you know how to party say 'oh yeah'
(oh yeah)
But if you ain't hip to the rare house quake,
Shut up already, damn!"

All you need to do is to keep doing what you’ve been doing for so long now, that you didn’t even know you were doing it. You expressed yourself. People knew you were “in the purple” lifestyle. That you drank the purple kool-aid. And, they counted on you being there when they needed to know more. And, they always need to know more, you know. No one can know too much about him. No one will.

So this club we didn’t join is with us forever. Partly because there’s no way to quit a club you didn’t join, and partly because why would you want to?

I COULD NEVER TAKE THE PLACE OF YOUR MAN

“It hurt me so bad when she told me
With tears in her eyes (tears in her eyes)
He was all she ever had and now she wanted to die
He left her with a baby and another one on the way
She couldn’t stop cryin’ cause she knew he was gone to stay
She asked me if we could be friends
And I said, oh, honey baby that's a dead end
You know and I know that we wouldn't be satisfied”

The other day I was at work and I saw a guy with a really cool Paisley Park t-shirt on, and I knew it was from his home and studio, and that he must have gone on the tour. And I excitedly approached him and expressed my love for his shirt and for the man it represented, and he immediately went into the ‘kool-aid’ trance and we had an impromptu ‘club’ session right then and there.

He and I both understood that what we were doing was perfectly acceptable and that it was pretty much required. We went on for about ten minutes – a long time for perfect strangers, but again, we both knew where we were coming from and even though there was (and I guess always will be) a snippet of sadness in these conversations, it’s still just so cool to ‘run into’ club members from time to time and just … talk.

Before that encounter, the week before -at work, a female customer appeared and she had a daughter, and they were doing the mom and kid thing and for some reason I thought to myself, ‘damn, she has a lot of tattoos’, and as soon as I thought that, I noticed why I was meant to notice it, on the inside of her arm she had a giant Prince Symbol tattoo, and I reacted the way club members are required to. Another ten minutes, another wonderful encounter.

THE CROSS

“We all have our problems
Some big, some are small
Soon all of our problems
Will be taken by the cross
Black day, stormy night
No love, no hope in sight
Don't cry for he is coming
Don't die without knowing the cross”

I’ve had an interesting year. Not as drama filled and sad as the year before, and getting to interview Sharon Nelson, and going to his Los Angeles memorial service, reconnecting with Ben & Val and also meeting Jill Jones, and making appearances at Prince events representing the ‘Org’… it’s all been … really cool.

But, every now and then, I ponder. I think about the loss. I listen to lyrics. I hear his voice. I see his videos. And I cry. Sometimes I sob. Sometimes I feel so … overcome with sorrow I just have to let it go. I can’t control that. I’ve stopped trying to, either.

I am aware that this club does have a payment requirement to be in good standing. You have to cry, sob, be overcome and let go, at least once in every year we move on.

All of us members are most likely paid up years in advance.

I’m gonna be closing this with a non-SOTT song – just seems fitting.

LAST DECEMBER

“If your last December came
What would you do?
Will anybody remember
To remember you?

Did you stand tall?
Or did you fall?
Did you give your all?
Did you ever find a reason
Why you had to die?
Or did you just plan on leaving
Without wondering why?

Was it everything it seemed?
Or did it feel like a dream?
Did you feel redeemed?

In the name of the father
In the name of the son
We need to come together
Come together as one

Did you love somebody
But got no love in return?
Did you understand the real meaning of love?
That it just is and never yearns?

When the truth arrives
We'll be lost on the other side?
Will you still be alive?

In your life did you just give a little
Or did you give all that you had?
Were you just somewhere in the middle?
Not to good, not to bad?”

PRINCE, WE LOVE YOU

– LOVE, JUNE7

(AND ALL OF US AT THE ORG)

PRINCE 4EVER!

Thank you... and just to make sure are you feeling okay?

Something about this made me feel sad and I worry you do too...

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Thank you... and just to make sure are you feeling okay?

Something about this made me feel sad and I worry you do too...

Thank you for asking.

No, I'm okay - not super fantastic ... just okay.

The other day I slipped and landed mouth first on the edge of my nightstand and cracked my front tooth in half. So, now I look like I come from the hillbilly clan, and now I've got to go to the dentist and try and figure out how this is going to go down.

A little depressing.

But, otherwise, I'm okay.

How are you?

June7 said:

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Thank you... and just to make sure are you feeling okay?

Something about this made me feel sad and I worry you do too...

Thank you for asking.

No, I'm okay - not super fantastic ... just okay.

The other day I slipped and landed mouth first on the edge of my nightstand and cracked my front tooth in half. So, now I look like I come from the hillbilly clan, and now I've got to go to the dentist and try and figure out how this is going to go down.

A little depressing.

But, otherwise, I'm okay.

How are you?

I am well...

Sorry about the tooth but maybe you can work at the waffle house?

I am glad that you feel okay...

U must learn.