Hi Morrissey!
One of your greatest gifts is that you are able to laugh in the face of the world being a pigsty! And you go on to share this skill with us! I can’t tell you how many days it is YOUR wonderful songs that cause me to smile during a bleak time. You do it so beautifully! You do it so courageously!
Your songs are like being hugged by you over and over again. You have reached out and hugged me! I reach back and hug you! It is not a hug saying it will be all right. No. It is a hug that says we are in this together! You do it so eloquently, so brilliantly, and so jarringly!
Then, to see you at one of your shows, well that just puts it over the top. You begin and the time is gone. We are all one — or most of us. You are the guide showing us the pictures in the gallery; you are the very skilled storyteller saying see that, hear that — this is how it makes me feel —- how does it make you feel?You grab us, hold us, make us swirl and scream, then you release us and it is over. I leave a mere bag of sweat with the realization that this is what life could be!
On this your fabulous birthday, I thank you for many things you have given me. But most of all thanks for your intimacy. Going WAY out there as if saying see this:I am doing it, why not you?
There is no one else that does that with so much skill and beauty!
I am a year younger than you. I have grown up with you. Trying to make sense of it all. You have been a great companion!
For this next year of your life, I wish you health and joy! I know you can’t keep it up forever. Of course, you decide how much longer. I am here to say, I want as much as you can put out there!!!!
Much love to you on your birthday!
Christopher Riggan
Maplewood, NJ, USA
