You're Aging Well

Why is it that as we grow older and stronger

The road signs point us adrift and make us afraid?

Saying you never can win, watch your back, where's your husband?

Oh, I don't like the signs that the sign makers made

So I'm gonna steal out with my paint and my brushes

I'll change the directions, I'll hit every street

It's the Dizzletown Scandal, the Robin Hood Vandal

She goes out and steals the King's English

And in the morning you wake up and the signs point to you

They say, "I'm so glad that you finally made it here

You thought nobody cared, but I did, I could tell

And this is your year, and it always starts here

And oh, you're aging well"

Well, I know a woman with a collection of sticks

She could fight back the hundreds of voices she heard

She could poke at the greed, she could fend off her need

And with anger she found she could pound every word

But one voice got through and caught her up by surprise

It said, "Don't hold us back, we're the story you tell"

And no sooner than spoken, the spell had been broken

And the voices before her were trumpets and timpani

Violins, basses, and woodwinds and cellos

Singing, "We're so glad that you finally made it here

You thought nobody cared, but we did, we could tell

And now you'll dance through the days while the orchestra plays

And oh, you're aging well"

Now when I was fifteen, oh, I knew it was over

The road to enchantment was not mine to take

'Cause lower calf, upper arm should be half what they are

I was breaking the laws that the sign makers made

And all I could eat was the poisonous apple

And that's not a story I was meant to survive

But I was all out of choices but the woman of voices

She turned 'round the corner with music around her

She gave me the language that keeps me alive

She said, "I'm so glad that you finally made it here

With the things you know now that only time can tell

Looking back, seeing far, landing right where we are