Thank you for a really interesting and informative exchange.

My only 'criticism' of Swift, as I wrote in my original post, is that her lyrics are, to me, not great, but I do not begrudge her any of her material success (boldface italics added this time around).

I am not a failed popular artist because I never tried to be one. My failures have occurred in other areas. I have actually tried to change the world for the better, including the economy, through a new approach to justice: mutual respect in effecting choices, i.e., everyone respecting the capacity of all other people to make their own choices. The implications of that for relations of all kinds among people are obvious: no killing, harming, coercing, stealing, or manipulating in our relations with other people to get what we want, including sex--and money, for that matter. Sadly, that has gone over like the proverbial screened door on a submarine: once I am gone (which, at almost 72 really could be any day now) it will have sunk without a trace.

Weirdly, when I was younger a song would pop into my head every now and then, even though music was never a big thing to me, but when one did I wrote it down. Over time, I did just enough of trying to sell my songs that lightning could possibly strike, but it did not. As I never had any real expectations, I suffered no loss of even that kind.

I am now starting to learn enough guitar that I can accompany myself on it, but really that is just for something to do. I have never been much as a singer, either, but I might start playing at old folks homes and retirement communities and such: 'new songs in old styles'--again, just for something to do.