Entry tags:

creativity, lyrics

"this side up"
so i've been struggling with faith over the last few weeks. there are a few of you that i should talk to on a more in-depth level about it, but for everyone, i wrote a song about the whole thing, it took me 3 and a half hours (some kind of speed record for me), and it expresses most everything very well.

sally's selling saviors by the seashore
while peter piper's picking preachers,
paul is writing letters to my heart
i can feel the labor pains of mother mary
a father's love in abraham
it's so beautiful, i just want to believe

i find it hard to lose my faith in angels watching over me
i'm still not sure if all this is is just suspending disbelief

a man is handing tracts out by the city square
his smile is wide but i don't care
i have a funny feeling that he's selling them to me
and all the bible thumpers on tv
are standing in for Jesus, who is on his way
he'll be here in a couple days

all the messengers are clouding up the way i look at faith
there's something in their message, somewhere, maybe calling out to me
i want it bad, it's so intrinsic, so primeval, so innate
but doubt is creeping in, that maybe all i want is to believe

that doesn't make it right
but it doesn't make it wrong either

i read it in an article, it's in our head
we're hardwired to believe that there is something more
than all of us, in all of us, it's true
and all the atheists, believers too
they both said that it proved their point
it's iron-clad, we knew it all along

and when i pray, i'm searching still i find it hard to believe
it's not so hard, i feel there's something out there tugging on my sleeve
i'm like a box marked "fragile", this way up, oh won't you set me right
but there are arrows pointing every way, i can't determine

which way i'm supposed to go
i don't think that i can figure it out on my own

i kind of envy the believers
who aren't burdened with my pangs of doubt
they've got it figured out, it's all so simple and so real
but if let myself fall victim to
believing in the things that make me feel good
will i believe in anything at all

i wanted to juxtapose the beauty of spirituality with a sense of distrust of its messengers, while still avoiding all the really shitty overused stereotypical archetypes like child-molesting priests and churches that want to line their coffers with your tithes. most of all, i wanted it to be personal, but i think i know a few people who can relate to it.