i wrote and recorded this early this year. my dad has dementia and has lost his ability to speak. but i talk to him. and he can hear me.
blinking was just one of the things i tried when i first got home after a long time overseas. i once watched a documentary on cats and apparently cats see blinking as a friendly gesture. so i tried blinking at my dad. haha. and nodding, smiling and looking as calm and reassuring as i can. since i wrote this song i found out that he can do more than blinking. when he is feeling playful he loves opening his mouth wide open, and puckering his lips. i make faces at him. sometimes he smiles and it looks like a grimace but he is smiling. today he tried to say out the numbers on the calendar. it seemed to take him everything he got inside him and he fell asleep immediately after, totally exhausted. but he was smiling when he did it. :) lyrics : i am blinking at my dad, the way i blink at cats, to tell him i'm a friend, to tell him not to be scared. he can nod and shake his head, stare into space and point at things. blinking is his other vocabulary. so i am blinking at my dad, the way i blink at cats. i said: you don't have to be scared, i am here to hold your hand. i played my soprano uke on this. the art are excerpts from a hand-painted book i made these last couple of days.
