You're Aging Well Lyrics - Dar Williams

Why is it that as we grow older and stronger 

The road signs point us adrift and make us afraid 

Saying, 'You never can win' 

'Watch your back', 'Where's your husband?' 

I don't like the signs that the signmakers made 

So I'm going to steal out with my paint and brushes 

I'll change the directions, I'll hit every street 

It's the Tinseltown scandal, the robin hood vandal 

She goes out and steals the king's English 

And in the morning you wake up and the signs point to you 

They say, "I'm so glad that you finally made it here 

You thought nobody cared but I did, I could tell 

And this is your year and it always starts here 

And oh, you're aging well" 

Well I know a woman with a collection of sticks 

She could fight back the hundreds of voices she heard 

She could poke at the greed, she could fend off her need 

And with anger she found she could pound every word 

But one voice got through, caught her up by surprise 

It said, "Don't hold us back we're the story you tell" 

And no sooner than spoken, a spell had been broken 

And the voices before her were trumpets and tympani 

Violins, basses and woodwinds and cellos, singing 

"We're so glad that you finally made it here 

You thought nobody cared, but we did, we could tell 

And now you'll dance through the days while the orchestra plays 

And oh, you're aging well" 

Now when I was fifteen, oh I knew it was over 

The road to enchantment was not mine to take 

'Cause lower calf, upper arm should be half what they are 

I was breaking the laws that the signmakers made 

And all I could eat was the poisonous apple 

And that's not a story I was meant to survive 

I was all out of choices but the woman of voices 

She turned round the corner with music around her 

She gave me the language that keeps me alive, she said 

"I'm so glad that you finally made it here 

With the things you know now, that only time could tell 

Looking back, seeing far, landing right where we are 

And oh, you're aging, oh and I am aging oh, aren't we aging well?"