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View Full Version : Why this song is so meaningful to me


Zarathustra
04-20-2006, 05:28 PM
Hello, this is my first post, nice to meet all of you etc.

Im 20 years old, working full time saving money for my own place atm. Basically a little intro to my story and in turn why this song is meaningful to me.

My entire educational expirience was at a reformed strict christian school. I start reading alot of heavy philosophy at a young age. things like nietzche, schopenharore (sp), and the like. I fell away from christianity for alot of reasons. in my senior year I wrote a thesis on my view of the world which ultimately got me expelled and really ruined alot of relationships i had at the time.

I atended college for a semester. During that time I was really down in a hole hating all things religion, doing alot of drugs, and drinking too much.

I decided I didnt want to go to college, moved home and started working full tiem and have been ever since. Within the last 3 months Ive gotten mself clean and worked on fixing relationships that went amis over the years.

I rethought christianity and it hit me. I understand m it is people choose to give there lives to christ. I have been down in the hole if you will, in the position where many people tun to christ to get them out of it.

Truly people are half full. Christians give up who they were and give themselves to christ and he completes them. While I understand that and respect that (that certainly wasnt the case a year ago), Christianity is not how I see the world nor what comforts me. It is my hope and faith that people can complete each other and not live this life for the purpose of getting to a better one (heaven), but that they can love this life enough to want to live here as a human again. Thats my personal belief and hope. I want to live in this life eternally, a form of reincarnation I guess.

But getting back to Tool. I do not believe maynard is a christian. Many of his songs are anti christian (Intolerence, judith to name a few). However with lateralus in my humble opinion, he let go of the hate he had for it which ultimately is what i think the song "the grudge" is about. Lateralus was like his philosophy towards life put in song form. This is shown in Parabola, Lateralus, and ultimately culmilating in reflection. Reflection was in my mind, Maynard's beliefs towards life in a nutshell.

Now about this song. Like i said before i dont think this is him saying he is now a christian. Obviously his mother was very dear to him and she from what i can tell was a christian. In my personal life I have been with the same girl since i was 12. She is a christian and that was and has been a real problem for us. But now I can say that I respect and understand how and why she feels and believes the way she does.

I believe that is waht this song is about. Maynard is saying his mother despite all her hardship "10,00- days in the fire", believed in christianity. He is showing his mother respect and saying if anyone in this world deserves heaven its her.

In my opinion this song is really a beautiful ode to his mother and him saying, not that he is a christian, but that he loves and respects her for what she believed and held onto all these years. "10,000 days in the fire was long enough, your going home"

Not rage and anger over her death and beliefs, but a "Im happy your finally home".

Sorry that was a real wall of text >_> Hello again and feel free to post your opinions on the song or ablum as a whole.

fearimas
04-20-2006, 05:34 PM
very well put Zarathustra, It's not a song about christianity, but believing in the divine, and how it can carry a person through.

It's amazing to see the contrast between this song and Judith. I suppose in Judith it was a message of anger, and this one is realizing that faith was what carried her through.

Echelon11
04-20-2006, 06:39 PM
This song strikes a particular chord in my heart because my mother has been stricken with a mental illness that began its onset when I was around Maynards age. (I was 13).
The lyrics are such a beautiful tribute to his mother's passing in his eyes and I can picture myself saying these same words about my own mother.
Thankfully my mother hasn't passed yet but I'm beginning to fear that her drive is losing momentum. Hopefully when she does I can listen to this song and be happy with remembering the good times I had with her.

hbynoe
04-20-2006, 09:55 PM
hugs for you

auto-de-fe
04-20-2006, 10:02 PM
This song strikes a particular chord in my heart because my mother has been stricken with a mental illness that began its onset when I was around Maynards age. (I was 13).
The lyrics are such a beautiful tribute to his mother's passing in his eyes and I can picture myself saying these same words about my own mother.
Thankfully my mother hasn't passed yet but I'm beginning to fear that her drive is losing momentum. Hopefully when she does I can listen to this song and be happy with remembering the good times I had with her.

Very beautiful my friend.

Ancalagon
04-20-2006, 10:02 PM
Dude, I feel you. Similar situation that I'm not going to explain.

Same thing with the Christian school, though.

zoomster
04-20-2006, 10:44 PM
thanks for posting this.

Zarathustra
04-21-2006, 12:10 AM
Ironically this is without a doubt the most personal song tool has ever written and yet I feel like we can all relate to it the most.