learning2swim

[brettmck10]

remember back when our parents took us to swimming lessons, yes, all scared shitless we will all fucking drown because we couldnt touch the bottom, i think what maynayd
means is that we have to go back and learn to swim, let go of ourselves and dive into the unknown again, forget about all the materail shit, fret for this and that, and free yourself to be a new being or you must have been an old fucker who has taken to much maple syrip and youre too fucken fat and when it all comes down to your life wasting away losing everything possible,(yep i fucked your wife last night)
then we have to learn the basics again.......maybe he was abstract thinking about the whole song and put pieces together that flowed after coming off a great hit, we will never know but i guess it gives us a reason to question everything!!! seeyuep

[Himself]

good observation, but im pretty sure this song is about a natural disaster destroying california and its fucked up way of doing things. if you don't believe me check the CD case. The floodwaters wash away cali and leave it clean as whistle. just my opinion though.

[brettmck10]

just taking a perspective view of what hes trying to convey,like myself and maynard we have travelled to other parts of the world, suck suck sucked up society's outside the ones we live in....(pass the bong my brother) you know what i mean? or i could say that i have travelled on an airplane and landed on another physical dimension, dirt and soil...........
i take your point that cali is going under but its the symbolism in the story hes telling us that it's just not a tidal wave coming, better learn to swim.. but your boss has just sacked you, your wife has left ya, you just got cable disconnected forever, shot in the head from someone..while under the influence of drugs and your mind has been stolen by the dream police....what do you do apart from falling. just another brick in the wall.. or shall we all swim our way out .

[DSenart]

I honestly don't think that Maynard is trying to be symbollic of anything. I think he is coming straight out and saying California is Fucked, quite wasting your time with your movies and frivelous lifestyles and learn to swim, because soon thats all thats going to matter to you!!

Just my 2c.

[jpmanson]

Originally posted by brettmck10
free yourself to be a new being or you must have been an old fucker who has taken to much maple syrip and youre too fucken fat and when it all comes down to your life wasting away losing everything possible,(yep i fucked your wife last night)

i dont get wht you are trying to say here.. must be some strange new little kid phrase..

[Jimmy Pop]

I think that "learn to swim" is used as a synonymous to either open your third eye, evolve to 46&2 or just get more intelligent.

I don't wanna go any deeper than that.

[soberwithapenis]

Well if you take it in the sense that cali is gonna be hit with a huge tidal wave, i see that as the end for me. I wont sit here and cower or run to another state where its not worth living. Rather i plan on grabbing my board and catching that wave.

[UncnciousShadow]

Dude I could not make any fucking sense of that.... But I think that you went way too much in depth with that.

[brettmck10]

well im glad i stirred a little something here..even if you cannot see the symbolism at all in maynards work and his ever evolving state of mind, if we go all the back to the opiate album his lyrics were suited to the fact he has become an entity and shadow and telling people that he has seen enough now that he can take gods will and start shooting people in the head via with his projection and words of mouth an order to release them from the system we have created by directors movie symbols, musican lyric symbols, producers of television networks whom throw garble at us in order to brainwash and dictate our third eye view the way our life should be......bill hicks laughed at all of this and began shooting his head off at all of this system dictatatorship and so the flow on effect of an awakening state, where now we are in a state of mind with our movies and songs is that it is no longer acceptable to live unconciously....matrix, fight club,8-mile etc...... we are alive but will soon die under the gun of people of the awakened state, those that choose to ignore will forever be trapped an (arrested soul) but the mighty force of the united souls will unite creating thunderstorms, tidal waves (gun shots) and force people to learn2swim for the better of our evolution........for anyone whom has evolved into this state will understand and will also know who are the oppressors of our physical (heaven) journey and will have the right to shoot and to be a very trained marksman....knowing they are doing right for continuation of a free journey...
46n2 jst ahead of us..
take a listen to the opiate album (hes not kidding ya)

[Dedication]

I tend to agree with DSenart to a large extent. On one level, the lyrics and learning to swim certainly goes with the whole thing about a natural disaster facing California, and the need to learn to swim (see you in Arizona Bay..) to survive it. Because, the lyrics from the beginning until almost the end are a fairly direct critique of the California lifestyle, you know, actresses, prozac, L Ron Hubbard (scientology) etc etc.

But I think that towards the end, there is a clear hint that the lyrics can be interpreted on another level as well. I mean, how much clearer can the hint be than "try and read between the lines"...?

So, on a less literal level, "learn to swim" refers to the need to focus on the things that are important, the things that are real, things that are necessary for us in surviving - and developing - as individuals as well as a species. Doesn't matter if you're in California or Copenhagen.

just my humble opinion.

[Tantobourne]

At the very least the song is two-fold in meaning. Yeah, it definately, pointedly talks about California with an homage to Hicks.

On another, interrelated level, using the plastic fantastics and the hollow-men and women of the California lifestyle, it speaks --to me- of how a lot of people live some fucked up superfluous lives (I can name myself as a prime example). It's easy to level that kind of critiicism on someone else but we all might be familiar with, "Before you point your finger you should know that I'm the man..." song. Anyhow, eople would rather go to botox parties and sweat the small stuff instead of lifting their fucking heads up and looking past their four-walled worlds to the horizon.

Learn to swim....we all do this. From birth until death, it's an on going process. Water is such a perfect, universal metaphor that everyone can relate to.

Perhaps Keenan caught the thought while reflecting on his own problems and realized that we need to swim to survive or simply thrash about and by doing so put off the inevitable. We see this in our emotional development, our careers, our schooling, and yes, ultimately, our spiritual development.

If you don't swim you drown. A lot of who Keenan names in the song are mere examples out of a multitude of examples. He just conveniently used what happened to be around him at the time to make his point.

You can take the "learn to swim" metaphor and translate the same concept that he expresses in "Schism" or any of Tool's other songs. It's pretty prevelant. Along the same concept of "The Patient" one almost gets the idea that he is questioning whether he should stick around and help other people learn how to swim or just say "Fuck you all" and swim for shore.

blah....that's too much blabbering....

[brettmck10]

try and read between these lines..........

im going BACK to my box!!!aaarrrgghhhhoooooiiiieeeee

thank you sir for pointing out the fact there could be alien messages in the parallels we step thru in going from one concrete thought to a paradox

actually im in the MoMs united states of whatever

now OVER to you with weather

oooohhh i hear crackling sounds in here its so lovely and warm,you can touch all four sides from in here you know,so dark but safe from all those nasty voices and i hope one day mum can fix it all soon and put it back the way it was again
hhhrrrmmnnn with all those farm animal sounds that i remember....maaaa maaaa maaaaa

[metropolis pt-1]

pretty cool song. it sounds so pessimistic. its pretty much about a person that's disgusted and despised with the things and persons around him and wants to destroy it all and start everything anew. similar to the destructive flooding in the story of noah's ark. he prays for meteor showers and tidal waves. any fucking time. any fucking day. you'd better learn to swim 'coz its inevitable and inescapable.

[brettmck10]

ok ok ok i was lost in a visionary divisioned exorcism
i succombed?? to my own gun and now im free,,i wish maynard would stop telling me things while under an intense plane ride............fuck it, im swimming now.
and when it thunders and pours of rain i'll be thinking of the poor californians hoping they dont get washed away,,,(lifejackets please people)


its not the people i hate its the system of the people i hate..
(god)

m mansun....

awwwaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[supersonic2006]

Just to clear one thing up,

The theory that California is going to sink into the ocean is not at all based on a tidal wave (a tidal wave can't sink an entire state)

The fact is that California rests above two separate tectonic plates (divisions in the earth's crust) that are moving apart from each other. This is why there are so many earthquakes in California. Now, of course when California does sink into the ocean there will be tidal waves. but that's not what's causing the sinking.

[brettmck10]

hey yall buddy this is over

the fight has now already started and this page is already burning

now take this fucking thread off the site!!!!!

and play my mutha fuckas in the streets we're i do wear my threads for real

fucken bitch