 I find very little shame in the absurdity of the pathetic when it's all a person feels like they have in their toolbox to keep close what they imagine is better than absence. The difference between soaring, crooning soul ballads that beg and beg and the all-star cast of the Ohioans attempting to squeeze more time out of a savior is that the ballad has no real epilogue that anyone can see. Sure, sometimes we are to believe that the beloved comes back or sticks around or forgives the no-good mother .