I'm just about to publish my autobiography. It'll be out in September, so writing prose has been on my mind of late.
As with songwriting, that space just before you fall to sleep (what Crosby calls "When the elves take over the workshop") is most informative and often leads to the creation of a song. Being in this frame of mind, I wrote down a dream I had last night, an incredible, disturbing yet enlightening dream... Here it is -- and every word is true.
In my dream I became great friends with former President George W. Bush. (I told you it was incredible.)
We were sharing a drink of Jack Daniels, something I've never had. We got to talking about this and that, and in a pregnant pause in our conversation I said, "George, you have a distant sadness in your eyes. What's going on, what's bothering you?"
He took his time then slowly answered. "I think I let myself down, my family, my country and the world."
"How do you mean that exactly?" I said.
"Well, look what happened while I was the leader of the free world. I plunged us all into utter chaos and death and for what? Oil, power, revenge?" His eyes darted around mine and he continued. "I feel so bad. I'll never be able to undo what was done, never be able to put things right."
I thought about what he'd said for a few moments and came up with an idea.
"I know how you could start to 'put things right' at least. Something that could calm your soul, could put you on a path to healing yourself and the world."
He was silent for the longest time then said, "What could possibly do that?"
"Here's my idea. Why don't you write a book about exactly what happened from your point of view... How we got to this place... Who persuaded you to make the decisions you made... What forces came into play that ended up killing our soldiers -- killing all those people, wasting all that money?
You could write about Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi and all the other neocons in your administration. You could write about the pressures of leadership. You could tell the world what was being done in the name of the American people and how politics and policies have great importance in our lives. I even have a title for your book, Betrayal.
This way you could save us all from going down that awful path again. You really could do a great service to the nation, and strangely enough you could become the hero that you've always wanted to be. It's a wild idea, but you really could be a hero."
Betrayal... I like it. What do you think, George?