Don’t Want To Choose

Songs From The Age Of Human Error by Kerry Jackson-Kay

It’s been said so many times it has to be true
You can never have your cake and eat it up too
Well that may be so but I’ve still got to try
I want to have my cake, eat it, taste it, share it, love it
I don’t want to choose
I don’t want to choose
I don’t want to choose
You’ve got to hold fast, pin your colours to the mast
Don’t change your game, stay the same as when they saw you last
Am I a boy or a girl?
How do I fit in this world?
Am I rich or poor, black or white, do I give up?
I don’t want to choose
I don’t want to choose
I don’t want to choose
Do you think that I’m sick ’cause I don’t deny the feelings I have inside?
Do you think I’m a freak ’cause I don’t want to find a safe place to run and hide?
Do you think I’m a coward ’cause I don’t want to fight for your ignorance?
When did freedom become such a dirty word?The world isn’t black, the world isn’t white
They try to tell me that it is but I know it isn’t right
It’s a world of many colours, so much wonderful stuff
One life per person really isn’t enough
I don’t want to choose
I don’t want to choose
I don’t want to choose

Do you think that I’m sick ’cause I don’t deny the feelings I have inside?
Do you think I’m a freak ’cause I don’t want to find a safe place to run and hide?
Do you think I’m a coward ’cause I don’t want to fight for your ignorance?
When did freedom become such a dirty word?

credits

from Songs From The Age Of Human Error, released November 7, 2015
Words and music by Kerry Jackson-Kay
Performed and produced by Kerry Jackson-Kay
I wrote this some time around 2006.  Gender fluidity is one of the inspiring contexts, but more generally this is about pressure to pick and commit to a particular set of traits and beliefs in order to belong to an established group, which always involves also rejecting something else.  This frustration is a recurring theme in my work – it bothers me when important and personal issues get turned into currency to make people choose one side or another for arbitrary reasons.  

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