I was continuing my journey through Taylor Swift’s albums yesterday. When I came to the song…the one so many Swifties told me they couldn’t wait until I heard. There it was. “All Too Well”. I listened to the original version. Then, on the advice of the Swifties who warned me about it, I skipped to the 10-minute version on the Taylor’s Version of the album Red. Let me just say, that song is a masterpiece! The OG version is good, but the 10-minute version nearly broke me. I don’t do reaction videos as I listen, because, I’m just not good at videos. However, I did take a reaction selfie when I realized I was practically clutching my invisible pearls. Observe:
Seriously, such an incredible song that is just so heartbreaking and beautiful and powerful and all the things. Someone on Threads mentioned that this is the song Swifties sing with their whole chests. I can see that. This is going to go on my “inspirational” playlist so I can learn it well enough to also sing it with my whole chest.
There’s a line in the song that connects to the prompt today. I thought about red flags in people. I was tempted to write about people who only care about themselves and show no interest in others. But narcissism is more of a personality disorder. I thought about people with no sense of humor. Not necessarily a red flag though. Just makes for a boring person. Then I thought of this line from “All Too Well”:
“So casually cruel in the name of being honest”
And that’s it. That’s a huge red flag. It may not be a personality trait, but something in somebody’s personality makes them say mean things and justify it by saying “I’m just being honest”. My old boss/”mentor” did that all…the…time. It was sickening. It also wasn’t enough of a red flag for me until her cruelty in the name of honesty was directed toward me. For years I had heard her say awful things about other people with the “I’m just being honest” tagline. That phone call that broke me last year and made me decide to finally quit, did not end with “I’m just being honest”. That part was understood. By the way, if you’re a new reader, check out my post Independence Day. It’s all about that phone call that made me decide to end my career just as the next step of it was about to start.
People like her who see nothing wrong with verbal cruelty deserve songs written about them. It’s what is making me such a fan of Taylor Swift’s music now. I don’t have a history of heartbreak like she does, but I have experience with people who were just plain mean, as the title of one of her songs goes. I love that she is using her talent as a musician and lyricist to call out the hurtful things people have said and done to her. She’s using her voice in the most powerful way. I can’t write music. I can’t sing. And I don’t have a platform anywhere close to as big as hers, but I’m determined to keep using my voice as loud as I can. Maybe one day I can make someone clutch their pearls when they read my words, just as Taylor makes me clutch mine when I hear hers.
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