The Art of Asking

I first heard of The Dresden Dolls at the same time that I discovered The Gits. It was probably 2005; I was creeping very close to my thirtieth birthday and not feeling terribly in control of my life. (Not much has changed, I can assure you of that.) I once again found myself thinking about self harm and something made me Yahoo! (as I was not yet a Googler) "self injury" in the hopes I would find some words of wisdom to guide me away from these thoughts and keep me safe. I saw two quotes in italics; one was from The Gits song Cut My Skin It Makes Me Human and the other was The Dresden Dolls Girl Anachronism. I immediately went to iTunes, to my library, and Amazon in search of more songs. I soon discovered two new bands (new to me) that I absolutely loved and it had been a long time since that had happened. The Dresden Dolls made me excited about new music, it made me feel cool because no one I knew had heard of them. They were my secret, imaginary friends that I could keep in a pink plastic Easter egg that I hid in my undie-drawer.

Flash forward a dozen-ish years later: in my current obsession with absorbing as many audio-books as possible, I saw a book cover that caught my eye. Title: The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help Author's name: Amanda Palmer. "Ooo....Amanda Palmer!" I thought to myself, or more likely, said aloud to no one but me, "I haven't listened to The Dresden Dolls in ages... I wonder what her book's about..." Amanda Palmer's book is beautiful and the audio-book is extraordinary because it's like a John Waters audio-book - when John reads he's not reading to you. He's telling you a series of engrossing stories. Amanda does the same thing. It's kept me company and helped to chill me out when I've felt crazy stressed about traveling. I love books. I love how comforting they are and that they take me away from my problems for a few hours and allow my brain and body to let go and just listen.