I've got something to say but nothing comes

Little Earthquakes was one of the first tapes I bought with my own money. This video was the first I had ever seen of Tori Amos, and I remember thinking that it looked different than all of the other music videos I had seen on MTV and VH1. (This was more than 15 years ago: MTV played mostly music videos at that time.) The image of her rolling in the box has stuck with me.

Steve likes to annoy me, so he referred to Tori as a "PK" last night. If you know what that is, please don't say so. I like to imagine that my readers are much cooler than I am, so I can bask in the reflected glow. I've heard a lot about PKs, mostly because I am one.

"PK" stands for "preacher's kid". The only people who use this phrase are people who are convinced that they are very cool. These people will often have tattoos that say "Jesus Freak" and bumper stickers that say "Lead Guitarist For My Man J.C.". I really wish this was a joke.

In any case, I've always hated the term. It pretends to be descriptive, but in fact is no more descriptive than "postal worker's kid". Trust me, I know lots of preachers' kids. Some are desperate to distinguish themselves, but not in larger numbers than, say, the children of teachers or police officers or other authority figures. Just ask my dad and his brothers.