If you've seen the threads on autism/Asperger's, you'll know that autism is characterised by an inability to understand what's in other people's minds. The rest of us have this pretty remarkable ability for empathy; to understand and share the feelings and emotions of another, even though we haven't ourselves experienced what they've been through. This is what makes it possible for someone to write a song or tell a story about feelings we can echo in our own minds, whether the singer/storyteller or we have been in the situation in the song/story. (Sorry -- long sentences! I think they make sense?) We may not have sat on the banks of Moon River and wished we could escape to the other side and start living, and nor might Andy Williams, Audrey Hepburn, Henry Mancini or Johnny Mercer; but we all know what it would feel like: that's why it's so popular.

These adolescent angstniks may not have first-hand experience of the nasty things life can throw at us, but they are certainly aware of them, and they can certainly write about them. Anyway, it's one of the charcteristics of teenager-ness that you know everything: they'll grow up and grow out of it.

Steve