Hi Mike,

Thank you for your uplifting words about Raju and the lyric!

I think you're right about "not a soul cared" being softened to your suggestion of "So few seemed to care." I made the change. THANK YOU!

It's funny because I lingered over that line for a while. I knew I was sounding harsh, but the bitter part of me kept thinking ... why didn't anyone do anything for 50 years?! No one truly could have cared. (I always think that if I don't fix something that I see is wrong, it means that I must not truly care, or I'd do everything I could to fix it. That's unrealistic, too, though...)

Anyway, I know that's not true about no one caring about Raju . Wildlife SOS eventually cared enough to risk their lives. Plus, he was sold 27 times, so it's not like he sat in one spot for 50 years, where the same people saw him day after day.

Regarding the crying ... I went back and forth about that and now you have me pondering it again.

At first, I thought the remarkable thing was that he cried when they rescued him, and I imagined it was the first time that he possibly ever cried.

But, maybe it was the first time he cried tears of joy.

I read in one of the articles (maybe the one I posted the link to) that the rescuers thought, at first, that he was crying in agony, because every step was painful. Then, they realized he was crying out of joy.

So ... that's when I decided to make the leap and assume that he had cried tears of agony, before crying tears of joy.

One other option I'd considered was, in the chorus, asking him something like, "why don't you ever cry, Raju?/You know no one will free you."

Then, when he finally does cry ... that could be the big thing.

Do you think that might be a better approach?!

Thanks so much for your insights and help!

Lisa