I recently got the urge to re-write the song lyrics to "Just like a woman" to fit my own experience. I thought it would be an interesting exercise, especially changing the gender. Why that song? Reading the lyrics, I found more there than I realized would speak to me, probably what my soul was leading me to. There really are some fitting parts. In inner or depth work, one can gain a lot from this sort of thing, writing new endings, etc.... Jung felt that anything that comes up from the imagination has meaning, is something the unconscious wants us to examine or benefit from. 

I won’t share the whole rewritten song but there are a couple of stanzas that might give you a feel of how I made it my story. (song; lyrics). I wrote:

“Nobody can guess the baby can’t be blessed
‘Til he finally sees that he’s just like all the rest
With his ego, his candy and talk shows…”

Here’s my version of the chorus:

“… He takes just like a man
I wish he made love more like a man
Yes, I do, and he aches just like a man
But he breaks just like a toddler…”

I highly recommend converting a song of your choice to fit something from your past that you’ve been trying to process and let go of. I think it probably works best if it needs some serious reversal, such as the gender, in my example. (And it’s more fun.) If you decide to do your own, I’d love to hear about it, what song you chose and what worked for you.

Last note: I looked up who Bob Dylan was writing about and it suggested two possible women, including Joan Baez, but he said he’d rather not make it personal, that he wanted those listening to experience whatever emotions and feelings they identified with. I think this helped me honor his wish! And definitely put some things in a new light, helping me reflect on the past in a new way.

Join the book discussions at Marie Judson’s Readers on Facebook!

Click here to sign up for Marie Judson’s Writer’s Log (newsletter)!