blog :: IO Life → [String] | living with side effects

The bells again… someone has died
The bells of the end told to remind
That life’s but a race against time

This verse describes a funeral taking place. One should remember the shortness of life and never being able to reach all the goals in one’s life in time. You can certainly try and everybody does in fact, but in the end you are going to hear the bells after all: you die.

At your back youl’ll always hear
The chariot of time hurrying near
The faster you run the closer it comes
A pursuer you can not outrun

Now, the author clarifies that the harder you try to your life’s goals on a scale of months or years, the less you are going to succeed. Why? The more you attempt planning your future, the less control you actually have on your life. You may come close to your objectives, but this path you will be taking is stressful and unfulfilling.

Refrain 1:
Hear these words I say:
Make the most out of your day
For brief is the light on our way
On this momentary trail

The refrain now gives you the solution: Seize the day! Your way through life may be brief, but this momentary trail, this very day you are happening to live right now, is what’s keeping you alive. The small but nevertheless pleasing and comforting events that happen every single day are the ones one should seek and enjoy.

Refrain 2:
Hear these words, awake:
Make the most out of your day
For brief is the time, so brief is the time
That we’re allowed to stay

This variation of the refrain refers to the fact that we shouldn’t take everything for granted. Even though we should enjoy every day for ourselves, we shouldn’t forget the happiness of other people. We’re staying because they are allowing us to.

The bells again… whose turn this time?
To reach the end, yours or mine?
Each funeral just makes us realize
That life’s but a series of goodbyes

With this verse, the variation of the refrain is clarified. We’re not the only ones heading for death eventually. Who will be next? One can’t know, but we have to realize that there will be a next one. Make the most out of your day, and equally help your friends having a good time before it’s too late.

[Refrain 1]
Too late

[Refrain 1]
[Refrain 2]
Life passes by, melts away, like snow in the spring
We all are blind to the running of time

The melting of the snow in spring points out that dying in most cases is not a quick event. By growing old, our body is so slowly deteriorating that you can’t see that time is running out for you and you are restricted in what you are able to do. Enjoying yourself will become difficult. So have fun as long as you are still able to!

Consider yourself dying. Your whole life rushes by your eyes in a matter of milliseconds. Was your life worth living for? When would you consider your life fulfilled anyway? Having worked hard your whole life getting rich, a wife, some kids, a house in the country? Or is it the knwledge, that you lived every single day as though it was the last day of your life? Was it worth having strained yourself on a daily basis for an uncertain future fantasy that maybe never fully became reality? Or having succeeded in the short-term day to day goals by having had as much joy as you could?

Well, I choose the latter. Carpe diem!

Lately, I have come to love the songs of the swedish metal band In Flames and especially their lyrics. While a few years back, their melodic death metal was too hard for my taste, I can now appreciate their true awesomeness.

The dissection and interpretion of one song called Free Fall, whose lyrics touched me quite strongly and to which I can relate in strange kind of way, is the theme this entry. I will present the lyrics for this song verse by verse and will share my thoughts and feelings with you.

Mirror mirror, how far will I go?
Despite the foundation I am falling.
Sweet reflection will you save a place for me?

The author is looking into a mirror and, seeing himself, asking himself questions and trying to reflect about his life. The “foundation” refers to the structure in his life with which he’s apparently struggling. Though being content with what he sees (“sweet reflection”), he seems to fear that in the future there might be no place left for him in this world.

Where am I heading?
Could you grant me a haven?
For what?
I am punished could I ever repent?

The composer’s life doesn’t seem to have any direction or certainty for him. The second line indicates insecureness and the need for shelter. “For what?” This might be the question for what reason he needs shelter or, by reading the next line, why he was punished. By asking the consecutive question if he could ever repent, the author expresses his clear understanding of doing something wrong in the eyes of someone else, maybe everybody, but also his insecurity if the should feel remorse.

Was what he has done the right choice for him after all?

Mother Nature, I’m wide open
Waiting for you to move me

These lines fortell the the author’s anticipation for some kind of sign or enlightenment from somewhere (“Mother Nature”) because he is failing to find this truth and clarity by himself.

Don’t keep it from me
This is a free fall
This is a free fall

Someone or something is shielding the truth from him, probably his own mind. He’s basically lying to himself. But subcontiously, he is quite aware of this fact, hence the “free fall”. Also, this might show the author’s wish to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge or building if his issues can’t be resolved.

[Chorus]
I never seem to understand
The time, the place and who I am
Define a way to stay alive
It’s like I’m living a lie

The chorus sums up the whole song. He’s unable to grasp his identity, his place in this world and the rushing of the little time he has. He suggests defining a reason for which to live or else life is worthless for him. But his whole life he was lying to himself to stay alive.

Though waiting for “Mother Nature” to move him, he doesn’t realize that he is the only one who can do so and helf himself in return. He’s not going anywhere by lying to himself.

Father time every time I stop and feel
You’re there to tell me I’m already late

When trying to reflect about his own life, he feels being “already late” thus with too little time to think about it. By combining this with his “sweet reflection”, it becomes clear that he doesn’t want to think about the problems in his life and prefers to lie to himself by blandishing himself. He believes that, having this little time for reflection, he can’t do anything about his coming demise, so the basically ignores it.

This is a kind of procrastination, though not for every-day tasks, but for the very cornerstones of his live.