Thread by @KBSquared4

Goodbye, #MeatLoaf. My coming of age music is 80s; he wasn't on my radar until 'I Would Do Anything...', but my song was always 'Objects in the Rearview Mirror'. It took me decades to realise it was my parents' as well. #MeatLoafRIP

I sobbed the first 20 times I heard it; the catharsis was immense. Now I just cry quietly.

I know I still believe he'd never let me leave, I had to run away alone
So many threats and fears, so many wasted years
Before my life became my own

That hit. Hard.

For those who don't know the story, one night, my mother juxtaposed the words 'arranged' and 'marriage' and I moved out a few weeks later with 3 bin bags, leaving them a note on the fridge.

That was February. In December, I put my leg over an 8th floor balcony rail. It was hard.

While the 3rd verse narrative doesn't resonate in the way it's sung, the idea of love as muscular & as healer does. So many have helped me heal along the way: friends, teachers, all who stayed as my pain erupted in rage & pushing them away. Thank you all, more than I can say.

And as for the chorus, well. I don't know if cars outside the US have 'Objects may be closer than they appear' stamped on their rearview mirrors, but I'd noticed them since I was small, so the phrase was deeply embedded.

To this day, I repeat that chorus when memories overwhelm.

That song, as music so often does, healed me more deeply than talking alone ever could.

So, thank you, #MeatLoaf, for the music, all the lives you've touched & changed, & for that session w/ blackboard & pointer explaining 'that'. Requiescat in pace, your memory is a blessing.