He wasn’t really known for breaking the rules
When he arrived in the second year of my high school
He wasn’t so much of a twist of fate
As a short turn up from a Southern state
He was born with a sweet tooth he couldn’t beat
Always trying to find himself something sweet
All that he found was a trouble and me
Or maybe trouble just found him

It was hard to hide that his heart had scars
He would stay up late talking to the stars
People tried to blame him for making bad choices
When he was only listening to the voices
And searching for some kind of deeper truth
Between the lines and the Bible and living proof
There’s no point now to judge him in vain
If you haven’t been there, you don’t know the pain

His life became more than he could take
He found a bad habit he couldn’t break
Nothing could tame him and nothing could hold him
He only took the pills when the doctor told him

Looking to help for the something sweet
To make his life feel less incomplete
What in the hell are you gonna do
When the world has made its mind up about you?

They found him lying on his bed
With a gun in his hand and a quiet head
His broken heart, now, is finally gone
But I know that he had to hurt for too long

To think he had fought it all on his own
Just to lose the battle and die alone
After so many years of feeling the loss
He finally made his way back home

And I heard they put what was left in a box
And took it to a place called Jesus Rock
And scattered him all over jagged mound
As a symbol to all that the piece had been found
But not for a sign is left behind
With a hand stuck reaching back in time
To a place in which you can never unwind
I hope he found something so sweet

He wanted to be a better man
But life kicked him down like an old tin can
He would give you the shirt on his back
If not for a sugartooth
-Brandi Carlile

This song is about a friend of Brandi’s or Brandi’s brothers that fought a long battle with drug addiction that finally succumbs to it and passes away. It is about both the person’s struggle with drug addiction and the way the world treats those suffering from drug addiction.

I bring this up because I want to point out something about last week’s Brandi song “Fulton County Jane Doe”. That song tells the story of a woman whose body was found in the woods of Fulton County Georgia in 1999. To this day she still hasn’t been identified. When Brandi read the story she was moved to pen that song as a tribute to her and all other forgotten victims of similar circumstances.

But Thursday’s are for flowers and this Thursday I’m going to share the second to last collection of tulip pictures from Pella:

Next Thursday I will share the final collection of Tulip pictures I took in Pella this year. It feels a little sad that the prime flowertography season has passed and soon it will be completely over. But I will always have plenty of flowertography pictures to share.