SHADOWLAND: Prostitution - the story of Kay

This is Shadowland, a new podcast experience from This Jungian Life that explores the lives of people who work and take refuge in the hidden places of our culture. Lisa, Deb, and Joseph collaborate with songwriter Wells Hanley, creator of I Wrote This Song For You podcast, to bring insight, compassion, and understanding to the darker side of human experience.

Nietzsche wrote, “I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.”

In that spirit, we meet Kay, a 21-year-old single mother who works throughout the American southwest as a self-described prostitute. We explore how she found her way to that life, what she aspires to, and how she holds the complicated tensions between herself, her clients, and the current culture.

Here’s Kay’s dream that we analyze:

“I am in a pet store with my best friend and my daughter, who is in a stroller. The woman proprietor went in the back. I saw an alligator in a cage eating a piglet and looked at my daughter’s stroller -- she wasn’t in there. Then I am somewhere running through halls trying to find her. I see a lot of kids about her age running around [but she isn’t among them]. I think she is in the ventilation system because she likes to crawl around. I tell someone to hide the weed that’s in my car so we can call the police.”

We shared this interview with Wells Hanley, who was moved to create a song for Kay. We hope you’ll be as touched by her story as we were.

You can support Wells Hanley’s creative work by becoming his patron here: https://www.patreon.com/iwrotethissongforyou

His website is here www.iwrotethissongforyou.com/

SONG: PART OF THE PLAY

music and lyrics by Wells Hanley © 2020.

I will listen

receive you

affirm you in every way

And I will hold you

but as I’ve told you

it’s just part of the play

I will undress you

and then impress you

we’ll make a game of predator and prey

I’ll be unrestrained

but as I’ve explained

it’s just part of the play

She is hiding in the walls

she is watching through a screen

She is frightened to come out

so she lingers there unseen

calling, “Mama, help me!”

I’ll be your Echo

a kind of mirror

your missing Helen I am willing to portray

And you may long to claim me

but you’ll never tame me

I’m too refined for that cliché

You see, my heart is never part of the play

See her high above the crowd

see her fall into the cage

See her flee into the walls

as she steps onto the stage

crying, “Mama, help me!”

You call me princess

tell me I’m beautiful

I’m not immune to the things you say

But when the curtain falls

I walk these empty halls

and even though I can never go, I can show you the way

and I will swear that everything’s ok

Hush little baby, don’t say a word

about what you’ve seen or about what you’ve heard

There’s a fat, hungry beast in need of a meal

so don’t ever share

no, don’t tell a soul what you feel

Music and Lyrics by Wells Hanley © 2020.

Singer: Ali Thibodeau at https://linktr.ee/deaueyes

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