the never ending story

[jimmy11]

My parabole parabola opinion is this.
First you have the parabol,which is almost the story.The story of human evolution.The constant struggle we have every day since the beginning time to choose what is right.We are in a constant battle with our own ego.We must learn to nurture our spiritual self through the decisions we make.For every action we have there is a reaction that lasts for eternity.
Then there is th parabola.If I'm not mistaken I believe it is basically a never ending arch.
So to bring the two together you have the parabol(the story).Then the parabola (the never ending arch).So in short it gives you the never ending story.The story of human evolution .
I also feel that Maynard wrote this song to his son.As a bit of advise.To just love life and never take it for granite. Because it is a celebration , and thats what the song feels like musically.

Sorry for the rant and I
and I hope it made
sense

[Schwarze Katz]

I propose a slightly different view. I had always thought the song (or rather, the pair of songs) was a celebration of oneself, one's soul happy to be in the living, breathing, mortal body. Then, I read the lyrics.

The first verse of Parabol (the prologue to Parabola) creates a vision of a parent holding a newborn child. In fact, due to the suggestion of familiarity, I believe it's the mother (the bond that forms over nine months in the womb). The child, now born, is no longer a dream of the mother, but a reality that can be embraced, and is wide-eyed and hopeful.

The second verse then is the mother's reflection on the time before the birth that we cannot remember when we have grown up. The precious moment is the moment of birth, a painful process the nearly born child would like to avoid, staying inside the body that makes him/her feel eternal. The pain is declared an illusion in an attempt to deny that it has to leave that wonderful place. End of prologue.

Parabolas are hump-shaped. The birth occurs, and the life cycle is set into motion, which peaks at a point before declining. New experiences occur throughout life, but like the song's repetition of the "body holding me," we always long for the embrace of someone else so as not to feel alone, to make the pain more bearable. We hold our parents when we're young (generally), and transfer that love and need for security to a new person when we're older. Love and life are the holy gifts. As we get older, we supply the loving embraces to our children and grandchildren, whose youth and delcacy remind us of our mortality. "Embrace this moment." Remember. We have learned through life that "we are eternal," which is the significance of the Parabola. It goes on indefinitely.

[barnabas]

Interesting ideas on birth. This song, I feel, is the most soulfull TOOL song on any album (I use the word "soulfull" loosely as I am aware of the soulfullness of all of TOOL's songs) so it makes sense for the song to sound like, as Jimmy11 said, a celebration of life.

"We barely remember what came before" fits in with the idea of being in the womb and then born yet not remembering the process when before/after birth, although being a living thing, the soul was conceived. At first I thought the aforementioned lyric was in a way critical of the way some people live their lives, only on the surface and not considering the importance of things thus taking them for granted, but I realised not knowing "what came before" is something which in the bigger picture connects us all and the fact that despite knowing little about the soul, even if it actually exists or not, we can still be made to feel alive and in existence and privileged by beleiving in it.

Some of the above may be best left to those with a better grasp of metaphysical dualism than myself, but i`m sure that the topic is one which is behind the meaning of this song as well as the inspiration TOOL took to make it sound like it did.

I hope this has provoked some more opinions which will further this thread.

spiral out