Ahead of her Time

Sinead O'Connor saw clearly. She saw what the Church was doing in Ireland and she brought light on it - and frankly,  they tried to crucify her for it.   There's something so powerful when someone can see a cultural disease and clearly speak to it.  

But she saw other things clearly too. How the music industry wanted her to be pretty,  and she shaved her head;  how they wanted her to be docile and she rebelled;  how they wanted her to be overawed by them and she said she never wanted to be a pop star in the first place.  She saw herself so clearly - a protest singer who shone a light.  

I love the quote - in Rememberings, "A lot of people say or think that tearing up the Pope's photo derailed my career. That's not how I feel about it," she wrote. "I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track."

I know she is a complex being and not everything she did made sense. But she came from a pure place,  and it took a few decades for us to catch up with her,  and see that most things she said were absolutely true and right.  I am grateful to her,  for the risks she took,  and for how hard she struggled to show us Truth.