Yesterday, I was told
the story of a man whose faith grew old,
that I knew, I had heard before.
He said: "there'll come a day when you'll be like me,
when the colour of the trees are but tattered dreams.
Oh son, you'll never dream no more.
Look around, everything is grey,
from the colour of this room to this darkened day.
Well son, can you see at all?"
Then he motioned his hand, so I began to walk,
took me to an open grave and there we stopped
when he sobbed, "is it worth it all?"
So I smiled and I said to him:
"life's all about what you make of it,
and I'm sure you haven't seen it all.
Use what you've got before it goes away,
it can't all be just a holiday.
You're only 34, don't think that way".
His eyes grew cold as he shuffled back,
then he dove on in before I could react
and said, "I know. I've heard it all before".
He placed his hands on the earthy walls,
said, "the sun don't shine when you're down this low,
so tell me, whose light could I loan?
When everything's so far away,
every step that I take leaves me in delay.
So come on. What's worth living for?
I count the days to my final years,
when the one thing I have will disappear.
I'll move on to a far, far better place".
I looked away and I said: "you know,
there are far better things with living for
than this dark, grey, murky room that has no doors.
Look alive, take a holiday!
Find a girl, settle down somewhere, someday.
Move on. You can't walk 'till you crawl.
And when life plays its games with you,
don't be afraid 'cause you wanna play them too.
Be strong. That's what you need to do.
Well, look at me, I'm 25.
How could it be? I'm teaching you 'bout life.
Get up. Come on and live it through!"
So he climbed his way out that muddy hole,
strut toward me with a smile on and said:
"this life...I haven't lived at all"
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This is a song I wrote recently. It's more colloquial than the others as it's a base human reality shared in common terms. It's about a battle that nearly everyone goes through at some point in life. The two characters are personifications of depression/pessimism and happiness/optimism. The grave is a metaphor for how low we can get and the age of both characters shows how much more often negative thoughts might prevail over their positive counterpart. It's much better heard than read but I hope it benefits some :)
