There’s no place in the Blues for “My Child Didn’t Get into an Elite Pre-school.Children do not belong in the Blues. Lost my Baby in the Mall? A heartstopper if you’re the parent but it’s not the Blues.

” Don’t ask why, just accept it as a Given,” Memphis Earlene tells me.

“What about Post-Partum Blues in Saint James Infirmary?” I ask.

Memphis Earlene gives this some thought.“The Blues are strictly personal,” she says which is one of her all-purpose answers.

I take it to mean that feelings of sadness and inadequacy fit into Blues language but not true terror. ‘My baby has cancer’ is too big for the Blues when there’s a real baby involved. See above.

“What about the Holocaust?” I ask Memphis Earlene.
Now she’s pissed.
“I taught you better than that,” she says. “Nazi Concentration Camp Blues is not only tasteless but a violation of Blues Ethos. The Blues were created by free men and women, not slaves.

The Blues are Existential.

The Blues are the price you pay for being free.

“Don’t ever forget that, honey. The Blues are a goddamn privilege, ” says Memphis Earlene.

 Blues for Beginners: Stories and Obsessions.  Still available on Amazon and Smashwords.  Buy it, read it and learn.