Friday, July 24, 2009

funny the way things are

A recent Dave Matthews Band song talks about how funny it is that we have such things as starvation and eating out happening in our world at the same time. It's the presence of opposites that he finds funny. I don;t think he is saying laughable, but odd. I think he is right, it is odd, or strange, that things such as war and opera, or parties and abusive fathers, or broken hearts and songs about them exist at the same time. We live in a country that has seen so little war on our own shores in the recent 140 years (since the Civil war) and yet there are countries that have known almost nothing but war in the past 25 years. The juxtaposition of these things is startling. Why do we have so much peace? Why are we so affluent?? What will we do with such things??
I think at least part of this can be explained in human nature: the co-residence of evil and greatness in the same beings. How can a great artist be also a horrible husband? How can a great speaker be an incredibly evil man? How can a poet filled with great thoughts be filled with depression? On and on it goes. We are capable of wondrous things, and horrible things.

Here's the full lyrics to the song:
Lying in the park on a beautiful day, sunshine in the grass, and the children play.
Siren’s passing, fire engine red, someone’s house is burning down on a day like this?
The evening comes and we’re hanging out,
On the front step, and a car rolls by with the windows rolled down,
And that war song is playing, “why can’t we be friends?”
Someone is screaming and crying in the apartment upstairs

Funny the way it is, if you think about it
Somebody’s going hungry and someone else is eating out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
Somebody’s heart is broken and it becomes your favorite song
The way your mouth feels in your lovers kiss
Like a pretty bird on a breeze or water to a fish
A bomb blast brings a building crashing to the floor
You can hear the laughter, while the children play “war”

Funny the way it is, if you think about it one kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
On a soldier’s last breath his baby’s being born
Standing on a bridge, watch the water passing under me
It must’ve been much harder when there was no bridge, just water
Now the world is small. Remember how it used to be, with mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars? Watch the sky, the jet planes, so far out of my reach Is there someone up there looking down on me?
Boy chase a bird, so close but every time
He’ll never catch her, but he can’t stop trying

Funny the way it is, if you think about it one kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong on a soldier’s last breath his baby’s being born
Funny the way it is, nor right or wrong
Somebody’s broken heart becomes your favorite song
Funny the way it is, if you think about it
A kid walks 10 miles to school, another’s dropping out.
Standing on a bridge, watch the water passing under me It must’ve been much harder when there was no bridge, just water
Now the world is small. Remember how it used to be, with mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars?

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