#93 Into the Fire

“It was dark, too dark to see,

you held me in the light you gave

You lay your hand on me

Then walked into the darkness of your smoky grave”

It takes a lot of courage to follow your calling, especially when that calling brings with it great sacrifice. The obvious heroes of our world – the policemen, soldiers, firemen, etc… - those who risk their lives every day for a cause greater than themselves – all deserve respect and recognition for such a great sacrifice.

However, there’s another kind of hero in our midst – we know him/her as “the artist” or maybe they’re “the unemployed”, “the cousin who lives out of his car”, “the eccentric friend who never had a steady job”, “the kid who doodles in class and doesn’t relate to his peers”, “the girl with headphones on who spends all day playing that “damn” guitar”.

Following your passion, your purpose against the grain of society is not an easy cross to bear, especially when that mission yields little fruitage. Putting your heart and soul into a song or a photo or a painting - laying it out for all to see and to possibly ridicule or worse yet – completely misunderstand – takes a drive and a commitment not easily embraced.

Artists are not supported. Only once they reach some level of “business success” do they truly get recognized, but then they are flooded with all the stuff that has nothing to do with their art or why they began creating in the first place – needy fans, managers, sponsors, it takes money to make money… a whole slew of meaningless expectations that for most artists can stifle their creativity. They become a factory of their meduim instead of a patient fisherman of their own inner world.

When was the last time you felt inspired and alive? For me, it’s when I listen to music especially at a live show or with a vodka and tonic (or 2 or 3) in front of my Bruce Springsteen Live In New York DVD. Nothing else compares. I feel inspired to write, inspired to be more myself and less the cookie cutter person everyone wants me to be. When I see the beauty of the earth or people who carry their lives on their faces, I am moved to want to capture those images with my camera. That is life. That is what I long to be passionate for. When I get those feelings, I feel like life is meant to go on forever and I feel something greater at work – something greater than all this madness. For tiny fleeting moments I believe in myself and that I can really have the life I desire. I don’t recall having any semblance of those emotions the last time I watched “The Bachelor”.

Artists are heroes too. They cross into the fire that most of us don’t dare draw near. They risk being ostracized and torn apart and give up family, friends, and a predictable meal plan all for the sake of trying to carve out an authentic life in this plastic society we call living.
And the sacrifices they make bring remind us of what living really is and what is important in our soul’s quest for answers…they hold us “in the light [they give}” and therein lies our faith, hope, and above all else - love…

For Complete Lyrics Visit: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/IntoTheFire.html

A Lull In The Action

I have not been posting as often as I'd like. This project is much greater than I anticipated. While I am still enjoying writing about and delving into these lyrics, I'm not finding the time to do so at a level I had hoped to do. I am back in school, so pretty much for the next four years I will be pretty busy (no it will not take me that long to finish these songs - God I hope not). However, I am still determined to finish this project, and I hope you will stick with me along the way. Thanks for your support and stay tuned for "Into the Fire" - it's a bit slow coming...

Thunderroad79
Erin

#92 Independence Day by Bruce Springsteen

"But they Can't Touch Me Now

And You Can't Touch Me Now

They Ain't Gonna Do To Me

What I Watched Them Do To You"

Raising children includes passing down ideas, beliefs, and values from one generation to another. Religion, politics, a general worldview, ways of coping with life (healthy and unhealthy), habits, talents, strengths, weaknesses – these all play a part in building a foundation for the growing child. But the time will come, and oh how it must come, when these children will begin to make decisions based on what they’ve come to believe in, to mature their inheritances, to leave them behind, or to embrace them as their own.

Not everyone responds the same way to breaking away from their upbringing. “Boys run away”, instinctually rebelling against everything they see in their fathers and everything they see in themselves and everything they do not want to be. However, like a newborn country, called the U.S. of A, on its Independence Day, they physically break away and then become exactly what they needed to so desperately leave behind.

“Men make their way”. A choice is made. They recognize that they and the world in which they live is constantly changing. New people bring new ideas, and they constantly search for new reasons why, expanding their vision, and encompass a world greater than the one they are born into. They willfully and inevitably break free from one’s past physically, spiritually, or emotionally.

In either case, it is a mournful process. Recognizing the weaknesses in those that have raised and loved you is a painful experience. Surpassing them in intellectual or emotional growth seems to move against the natural process of life. Yet, it is a necessary process. Springsteen sings “I never meant to take those things away” as a child who knows that their own personal growth will shatter the protective barrier of beliefs and ideas their parent has embraced throughout their life, their means of survival. The child must break away and then “make their way”. Though, they’ll never truly be free from everything, the good and the bad. Remnants of love, splinters of “the darkness”, and slivers of the light remain and there’s celebration and there’s bound to be devastation – come Independence Day.


For Complete Lyrics Visit: http://www.brucespringsteen.net/songs/IndependenceDay.html