Why all the sad songs?

I snapped this photo the other day, and somehow it perfectly captures what I tend to write songs about: something sad, something that had its time but most likely won't again, something I'm not even sure I'd want to see come back. And yet...

I think Peter Gabriel expressed my songwriting process best when he wrote "digging in the dirt, to find the places we got hurt."

Of course I'm not alone with my morose muse. So many writers I know of -- whether in music or not -- tend toward the sad stuff. I wonder why.

For me, I think sadness is just the emotion I'm most in touch with, and most certainly it's the one that dominates my thinking. It's my richest creative vein, and it runs though my whole life, or past.

I wish this weren't the case. I wish my memories were dominated by all the good stuff -- there's been plenty -- and I wish the songwriting process was more like diving into a tropical pool than digging in the dirt. Why can't I look forward and write about, say, um, well, hmmmm.... See? I can't even think of anything. Nothing comes to mind.

And so, following a three year period in which mostly good stuff happened -- save for a litte brain injury -- I will have an album chock full of sad songs.

Doesn't make sense.