Do you know what the best part about calling off an engagement is? You don’t have get divorced. I get nostalgic around this time of year…no, that’s not the word I’m looking for. Is there a word that means “nostalgia” except instead of meaning a wistful desire to return to a previous time in one’s life instead means an intense joy at making a decision that changed the course of your future and allowed you to not live in utter misery? If there isn’t such a word, there should be.
So, I was reading and listening to music the other day “Divorce Song” by Liz Phair came on and it made me think about my ex-fiance, and how happy I am that he’s not my soon-to-be ex-husband. (Because, seriously, that relationship existed way beyond its expiration date.) Divorce Song is on that excellent album Exile in Guyville. I didn’t really discover angry girl music until I got to college (preferring more industrial/punk in high school) and I was introduced to Liz Phair by a gay guy (of course, right?) I like “Divorce Song” because it should be angry but its more resigned. Like Liz has realized that it doesn’t matter how mad she feels about this break up, this relationship is over and there were things that they both could have done better but it doesn’t matter because sometimes over is just over.
Liz tells us that she would have stayed if she’d known how not staying would have sounded.
Album: Exile in Guyville
Artist: Liz Phair
Song: Divorce Song
