hahaa huge smiley yes, but ALSO hug hahahaha. whoops!

[quote="Cenaco"]

Gary - IRL wrote:

Quote: Dear mother, This is just survival. Cannot promise your children everything, But you would lie so they can sleep tonight. Defeat tasted nothing like you said. Still 22 days left till the end of the world. My legacy was making you a man For a justice I could not change. This is one voice not to forget; "Fight every fight like you can win; An iron fisted champion, An iron willed fuck up." Can anybody tell me why God won't speak to me? Why Jesus never called on me to part the fucking seas? Why death is easier than living? You can be almost anything When you're on your fucking knees. Not today, Not my son, Not my family, Not while walking is still honest, And you haven't given up on me. Dear shithead, This isn't happening; The sky is really falling, The paint's all made of lead, There's asbestos in the walls, Hell's coming to rip off the doors To your priveleged heaven. Do you want to love and feel it? You can look but you can't taste it. You can reach but you'll never have it. We are untouchable; Untouchable is something to be. Can anybody tell me why God won't speak to me? Why Jesus never called on me to part the fucking seas? Why death is easier than living? You can be almost anything When you're on your fucking knees. Not today, Not my son, Not my family, Not while walking is still honest, And you haven't given up on me, And you haven't given up on me, And you haven't forgotten me... I really like what this person said. And Agree with much of what they said. But I have my own insight- Novel here we come...! haha I really love the honesty of this song, and especially how Tom starts off with his first line as "This is just Survival". I think what is meant by this is that No god, abrahamic, or what not, or any external force can save us, we live life as we see it day to day, and you the parent, the guardian, the adult, or the mentor/role model cannot act as this god or higher power and protect your children from life. It is just survival, nothing more nothing less. Yes, many preach that God is all-knowing and all-loving, but if you think about it how can such a being exist or force exist if there is so much natrual and moral evil in the world. This is why you cannot promise your children teh world, you cannot promise anyone that life will forever be graced with happiness. Life is not that way. But religion is based on faith, and the faith entrusted with those who strongly believe is voiced through lies. Lies taht we rationalize within ourselves and to our loved ones. We pray that there will be a better day, and we pray, or atl east many of us, pray that in fact everything will be okay, and we expel this hope and faith onto our children. But considering the rather negativity or somewhat of frustration voiced throughout the song, this hope and rationalization is categorized as lies, ( which personaly I would have to agree with Tom on that). I think Tom proceeds to say that once these lies began to unfold the truth came forward-something one being coerced into believing would be scared to truly face. "Defeat tasted nothing like you said" - life is so watered down, everything so sugarcoated- so you could be blessed by the stories of the bible, and blessed by god, that life became an entirely new reality - success, defeat, and everything in-between became an entirely new battle. One of the saddest lines I find is the one where he says "My legacy was making you a man". To determine a person's life to define what kind of man and on what grounds they are a man is horrid, which I believe he is voices through this lyric. The concept of what is a man, and what defines a man versus a boy, is so subjective, and in this case was purely religious, and to restrict someone to a manhood based on false beliefs, clearly which Tom is not, or anyone for that matter, is awful. [chorus] Can anybody tell me why God won't speak to me? Why Jesus never called on me to part the fucking seas? Why death is easier than living? You can be almost anything When you're on your fucking knees. Not today, Not my son, Not my family, Not while walking is still honest, And you haven't given up on me. -- It is a common argument especially among those who study metaphysics the existence of God. If god is so powerful if he is so loving, why must he be hidden, why must he hide himself, herself, itself, from the world. Many of us become disillusioned, but it is again that faith, that "religious glue" that keeps so many of us "in line" and continue to believe. However, I do believe it is those who begin to question this unexplainable or rather alter reality that are the strongest, and most willed. It is also a question of belief, and how are such "higher beings" plausible. Why jesus? why god? why mary? why not me? No one can prove such stories, no one can prove anything. None of it can really exist without faith, and if faith is believing lies or perhaps false truths rationalized through generations-false truths rationalized through religious warfare, and struggle, then why have faith? No one has to believe in god, whether he is abrahamic or not, ( i want to include all religions here, not just christianity ), to believe in a better place, a worser place, or to calm their fears of the uncertain. In death, struggles no longer continue, pain no longer consumes the body, or the mind--all cognitive dissonance is lost. We are no longer caught up in the incoherent bull shit of today, and the grueling ways of life--a life which was supposedly created, according to many, by an all loving all powerful god. Just as the person also said, when he states "not my son, not my family"--is about saving his family, his future, sparing them the lies and the hurt and the anger he has felt--to spare them the pain--so they face reality with a clean slate, because we have to remember "this is just survival". This idea of "walking is still honest"-- I also agree with them. It's this idea of doing what one does, going through life-waking up each day- and being independent-believing what you must to get by- being honest to yourself-in order to keep going. If you stop walking, if you stop to look at a passerby, if you stop and let yourself be consumed by the nonsense, and the morals/values and beliefs of others- you are no longer yourself, you no longer have those internal feelings-you can't be true to yourself. You can walk and believe all you want- life keeps going- you don't stop life to believe the lies of the church, the synagog, or the mosque. All that time spent praying, could have been spent walking, ( all of this metaphorically of course ), walking and learning the real truth of the world -not the truth of a sacred text. --- Dear shithead, This isn't happening; The sky is really falling, The paint's all made of lead, There's asbestos in the walls, Hell's coming to rip off the doors To your priveleged heaven. Do you want to love and feel it? You can look but you can't taste it. You can reach but you'll never have it. We are untouchable; Untouchable is something to be. Dear shithead is clearly to a religious figure, or god, or some higher power. I don't know if I'd actually say its a literal letter, or more or less a somewhat sarcastic address to someone whom he despises. But that's just my take. LIke a calling out to someone, rather than something formal. I personally love this verse, it's so brutal, and so honest, and although he's not truly discussing hell, but uses it as a symbol for life/reality, it is truly fitting for such a purpose. It's as if those so religiously tied to the church, and their faith, they become scared of what really awaits them in life, and thus reality and life becomes their hell, and those who learn the truth, ( Tom obviously ), see hell, see this reality, burn down this "wall" between the barriers of religion and reality-and become enlightened. It's almost as if they view man without faith, to be the devil, and the home in which he lives, one without god, and without religion is hell--and no matter how hard we fight no matter how hard we scream into the ears of the priest, he will forever be deaf to our truths, for he is a man, so he believes, in a higher place. But it is there loss, so Tom continues. They will never love, nor feel, nor ever have what "we' have, they will never know the truth, because they are so engrossed in their religious lies. What Tom has, what those like him have, is nothing god, nor any of his followers touch, understand, nor have. And to be untouchable is to know the truth, to be free-free from god, free from pain-free from deceit-it's the way to be. [end of chorus] And you haven't given up on me, And you haven't given up on me, And you haven't forgotten me... Here I think it's an interesting touch to the end of the song. god, faith, his mother, his father, or whomever, no matter how "lost" their son maybe, (at least in their eyes), they will not give up on him. They still have that magic word, yes, FAITH, that their son can be saved from hell, from temptation, from all the evil engraved into their minds, they can keep him from the untouchables, so to speak. They haven't given up on him, and the reiteration of that line hints that they could not give up on him. No matter how much they try, or maybe even accept his lack of faith, they cannot and will not forget him- forget him and how he has digressed from his childhood upbringing and abandoned his faith, or the faith in which they installed in him at a young age. They will not forget perhaps the confused boy who so believed in god, they will not forget how they had him once- and hope that they can reel him in again. Religion, faith, and freedom will forever be an endless battle.

Holy Fuck, I love you so much, Carolyn. That was just so damn amazing. And I'm sorry by neglecting everyone who posted after this post, I had to thank her as soon as I finished reading this post. But, I'll read them now.

That was a spoton description/interpretation of Walking. I think I'm going to start saving her posts about songs as Word documents. Then when anyone askes me about an AM! song, instead of telling them, I can tell them to read the posts. Carolyn, you should analyze EVERY AM! song and write a fucking book, I know you could do it.

_________________
((FDK))
"More than likely, though, kids won't even notice a ban on flavored cigarettes -- they're all too busy smoking pot."

StoolPigeon wrote:

The funny thing about this is how Schwarzenbach is like Schwarzenegger and Bach combined.

Yah, thats truely amazing.

<3.

As of right now, walking is no longer honest. Walking is a lie.

taco.

Wow, i'm flattered times a thousand right now. I love all of you! aww and don't feel incompetent!

But i really don't know what to say...i'm touched...and I LOVE YOU TOO DAGGARR!!! i love all of you like i said!

and that's so cute you save my posts as word documents.... and you know what? Maybe i will analyze every AM! song. I'll probably get around to them all at somepoint in my life time. We'll see!

but gah, i don't even know what to say....

I love against me! and I love this forum.