Maynard said in an interview that this song is about unconditional love. Living in the moment and knowing how precious it is because it could be snuffed out just like that.
I know Maynard talks a lot of shit....but why not take this on as a meaning? Im not sure how its meaning is connected with its name. But maybe someone in the band named it and Maynard wrote the lyrics.....i know how Adam makes the videos and its just his preception of the music. Maybe the name is a different band members prespective on the song??
I think the title has more to do with the mathematical implications of a parabola.
I've already forgotten virtually everything from highschool math, but a parabola, to physically exist, must open upwards. It can open downwards, but mathematically is innacurate. It doesn't prove itself by checking the x intercepts. Consider the downward parabola a selfish attitude towards life. One that only looks inward, to what one likes, or does not like and breeds attitudes towards such things as pain, and pleasure.
An upwards opening parabola is ever receiving. Ever reaching closer towards infinity. God.
__________________ Fire lives only to consume.
Darkness lives only to consume.
If you wish to live, then die.
I can not imagine why it would have more to do with the mathematical implications than it does with the message of the song. The mathematical parabola is a metaphor. How can the metaphor be more important than what is being (ok, I'm going to make up a word) metaphorized?
I will avoid defining a parabola as it can be found in countless other places in this section. Like you, I see it as an embrace. I see the parabola as the closest mathematical model for embrace, with the exception of a circle. The parabola suggests change and progress toward infinity, while the circle is just embracing itself.
This is what I think of when I hear the song...
In a parabola, the fixed point "F" is the center - "Hold on, stay inside this body". Each "new experience" is the progressive building of the parabola toward infinity. While you continue to experience, you are choosing to "be here in this body", the fixed point F. Surely within the human experience we can not sum our "new experience" to infinity like the parabola. However, Maynard states "we are eternal", suggesting that the parabola extends into infinity.
The lines "feeling eternal" and "we are eternal" always confused me. Which does he mean do you think? Sometimes I think he is just accepting "this familiar parable" of "we live eternal all this pain is an illusion" because it makes him happy.
I definitely see it as celebrating life, and even with pain it is still the best thing to happen to you. The pain isn't real, the more you live the more you grow towards God.
"An upwards opening parabola is ever receiving. Ever reaching closer towards infinity. God."
this is a good thought... no an excellent one
maynard also state the following:This body. This body holding me. Be my reminder here that I AM NOT ALONE IN THIS BODY.
this quote from the bible* no less could help
*in no way am i stating that tool are christians thats silly but the bible is still a good source of info for anyone.
1 john chap. 4
God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
Love i find to be a key element in all of tools music. Maynard has even been quoted as saying that God is love
i beleive any way, i could be misquoting. Compassion also i find is a key element. Which i would define as Unconditional love.
you will also find in 1John chap 4 the quote "There is no love in fear"
which also sound oh so familiar.
Word up brooklyn to blah blah
__________________ you in me in you....forever now and then
i know that i have studied religion at my fucking catholic school and they said that parabols is the way that Jesus talked to other people i mean parabola is some kind of conversation that is not talked in a directly way but like in indiractional ways to youre person.
An upwards opening parabola is ever receiving. Ever reaching closer towards infinity. God. [/B]
do you believe that god would be the culmination of all information and events, because that is my thought, and the progression of humanity is based upon the pursuit of that existance
Carlos, the correct spelling would be Parable in Jesus' sense.
And God Is not only the culmination of all information and events he is and is not i may add the information and events themselves and everything contained therein
THAT MEANS YOU AND ME AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN
WORD
BROOKLYN TO BLAH BLAH
__________________ you in me in you....forever now and then
Maybe we hit upon the idea. The Parable is just the words and the ideas...feeling eternal...we hear the words and want to believe it...and wish to accept it but they are just words at this point. And then we 'get' it we understand and live it and we experience Parabola. The simple words become truth and that acceptance of unconditional love for those that are with us in this journey and self escalates into infinity...there is no limit to unconditional love it is infinite. The words become infinite. The rate of our growth becomes exponential...both sides of our being Physical and spiritual equal and opposite into infinity
This makes a lot of sense and i will probably respond with more later. But lets think about this. Parabolas extend infinitely upward or downward. With the idea of a heaven and hell existing, i can explain Parabola better. Heaven, an infinte upward parabola, is eternal life and prosperity after death. Eternal meaning forever or infinite. Now to the opposite. Hell, the parabola plummeting downward into endless hate and violence, is a negetive parabola. If this is what Maynard was intending Parabola to mean, then we exist, alive, on an axis, with two ways to go. Choosing to be here in this body. This body on the axis.
Another way a parabola can go is left and right. When this kind of parabola is formed, the graph is not a function. A function is where on a graph there is only one Y value for each x value. When Maynard says "i am not alone in this body..." maybe he is refering to this.
Perhaps a parallel person...think about how a lot of concepts on tool depict possibly extradiminsional beings...or just the 4th diminsion of time. Lateralus could be the fact that there are others sharing my existence sharing this same body.
So yes indeed the opening of a parabola to the side could infer that there is a reflection of self...another equal existing lateral to us. Lots of things on the album point this way
parabola comes from the greek 'parabole' which means juxtaposition, parallelism. it is related to the word parable, since this also comes from a chain of words leading back to the greek 'parabole'. (and i guess this is the connection between parabol and parabola, which is basically a single song) since a parable is a story which illustrates a moral, this word makes sense in that the story parallels the moral it presents. so maybe parabola is just referring to togetherness or maybe the fact that it's the outcome of the schism being fixed (the word 'juxtaposed' being used in schism... likely a coincidence, but who knows?)
i got the etymology of parabola and parable from:
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, New College Addition (although it's at least as old as me...)
Well, if Maynard did say that, then looking at a parabola, doesn't the line come from one direction, then it curves right around into the other direction? Based on his quote, I would say that could have something to do with the title, but I'm not the greatest interpreter of things like this, but what can you do?
While all these thoughts on "parabolas" and "parables" and everything else are all excellent discussion topics, I just feel lucky to take part in someone's thoughts expressed through their art. It does my soul good to recognize kindred spirits present in the otherwise increasingly shallow entertainment industry. Because of this music, we are all communicating about various topics that mean something, and to me, that is more beautiful than any conclusion we could come to.
So.. on what level is this metaphor on? Is he talking about.... spirituality? Or is he talking about becoming one with someone, connecting with them.. knowing in one second it can all be taken from him?
"All this pain is an illusion."
If I was in a dream... I would think pain wouldn't exsist at all....
__________________ When all love thats left is gone forever, Theres no way for life to picture, its self , in disguise, my demise....
Originally posted by akinoyugure I see the parabola as the closest mathematical model for embrace, with the exception of a circle. The parabola suggests change and progress toward infinity, while the circle is just embracing itself.
You are right about the parabola being the closest thing for embrace because if you enter a parabola the further your go the focused you thoughts become on your love or what ever you may be thinking about. A circle is not about embrace becasue to embrace something you must allow it become apart of you and it apart of you and a circle cannot do this as there is no opening it has shut out the outside world by doing so has closed its mind to new thoughts.
I feel that the song is not entirly about somebody but something, i fell it is also about the earth and the role it plays throughout your life. Because a parabola has an axis just like the earth. Im not going to go into every line that has a connection to my theory because you can listen for yourself.
I haven't read all the responses to Parabola but the topic of "maynard says" seems closest to what i would like to say. I am a "christian" and completely relate this to a relationship with God. Not a religion but God. The body i feel is other believers. We are not alone in this body. We have to choose to be here. It's a conscious decision to believe. And anything before this moment isn't really important because we but off our old self and put on a new self. We become different. And we are mortal because we are goin to die but only in this world. We are just dying here. We are mortal yet eternal at the same time. I love this song. I think that Maynard would find it easy to relate to the Lord. He did grow up in a baptist family (if you believe the bio). I think that he is far more optomistic than some people think. I think Maynard is closer to God than a lot of "religious" people.
Yeah... I think all you guys are reading just a little too much into the whole name thing. Its most likely just a play on words... which is probably why Parable is spelled Parabol.
Or if you want to read into the musical aspect, Parabola does have great rising action and ends much the same way as Parabol... So the music does, in fact, represent a parabola... but as far as all this god stuff is concerned, I think you're maybe a bit off.
__________________ Finding beauty in dissonance...
I don't see how parabola is related to unconditional love. To me, (and considering the flow of the album) it represents the sanctity of having sex with someone new. Forgetting "who or what came before this precious moment".
Precious moment.
You look so precious now.
And, by the way, Parabol, though it isn't defined, I think I know what it is. If I remember correctly from high school math, a parabola resembles a bell curve, and a parabol is one half of that curve. When mirrored on the other side it is a parabola.
He does say "parable" in the song, but I don't think it is related to the title.
Actually this fits my original interpretation of Parabola quite well.
I believe the song is about a warm embrace between two people that love each other dearly.
Every been in an embrace with someone you love? Particularly if you've found your soul mate, the love, the eternal feeling of happiness, not wanting this moment to end, feeling ever so thankful that you are not the only one withing this "holy reality"?
Unconditional, true love, yes I do believe that fits the song quite well.
As for the Title, that I'm not sure how it fits with the song either, maybe like some said... a metaphor, Jesus spoke in parables did he not? So do artists.
Maybe this is Maynard's parable on true love.
__________________ -DXRocker, who tries to see things from all sides.
It was mentioned that parabola has the root of parabole which meant juxtaposition.
Quick trip to dictionary: Juxtaposition = typically, two things compared...layed side by side.
This could mean two people, but I don't know. My guess, with the spiritual reference, is that the body and spirit, though different in perception, are effectively linked and mirrored to each other. Therefore, we are all one and the same in this reality. Our bodies and souls are together and they choose to co-exist.
I believe the song explains the revelation of feeling 'alive'.
just as a sidenote, in the article where Adam says that he believed this song reminded him of climbing a sand dune, I can totally understand that. Aside from lyrics, and countless spirals just take the rythym, and the motion of the song and you can see that like a hill or parabola there in an essence of climbing, the song escillates to a point and breaks even to go downhill, it just makes sense, something hard, perservered, and then ... done. It's a real simple thought that he put out there, but somehow it makes sense.
__________________ "Our fathers were our models for God. If they bailed, what does that tell you about God? You have to be prepared for the possibility that God does not like you
I'm most likely way off track with this little idea, but;
"we are eternal, all this pain is an illusion" - these lyrics have always made me think Maynard is implying that a spiritual life has always been eternal, and that the pain via the fearing of death in this life could be the greatest illusion apparent.
I think the name makes perfectly sense with the lyrics or the meaning of the song. Atleast my meaning of it, and apperantly a lot of you have the same meaning. That it's about unconditional love. And using a parable or parabola as a metaphor is great! For true, unconditional love you must be able to accept everything with that person, and be able to tell that person everything. Ever reciving, but maybe also ever giving.
