I was driving around yesterday, coping with a bout of anger, depression, and general self-loathing, when Slumber from Bad Religion’s 
Stranger than Fiction
so, you’re feeling unimportant,
‘cuz you’ve got nothing to say,
and your life is just a ramble,
no one understands you anywaywell, I’ve got a piece of news, son,
that might make you change your mind,
your life is historically meaningful,
and spans a significant timeslumber will come soon,
and you are helping put it to sleep,
side by side we do our share faithfully
assuring that slumber will come soonwell, now do you feel a little better?,
lift up your head and walk away,
knowing we’re all in this together,
for such a short time anywaythere is just no time to parade around sulking,
I would rather laugh than cry,
the rich, the poor, the strong, the weak,
we share this place together,
and we pitch in to help it die
It’s not the most happy, feel-good sort of song (i.e., “we pitch in to help [the world] die”), but the music and the lyrics had a cathartic effect–I felt this wave of affirmation wash over me, and all the sharp ill-feelings went dull. Anyone else ever been healed by atheist, existential punk rock?
2 responses so far ↓
1 Amber // May 16, 2005 at 10:41 pm
YES, and the same song, even. It’s been running through my head for days now. What a funny coincidence? But when it was most cathartic was when I first moved back with my family from up north. I was busy feeling sad about a failed relationship and a failed attempt at whatever kind of lifestyle I was looking for there, and then my aunt was diagnosed with cancer and my parents got divorced and I thought, “wow, my problems are really insignificant.. but why do I still feel bad about them?” Re-enter Bad Religion. Nobody’s problems matter.
Luckily, that feeling didn’t last too long either.
2 john // May 17, 2005 at 10:19 pm
Whoa! That is a pretty freaky coincidence (which reminds me of a time that I once prayed, “God, if you’re really out there, send me a message or something.” I immediately received an email from Professor McKenna on atheism).
I’m still not sure where the catharsis came from–for me, it was less a sense that nothing matters, and more of something affirming (which is why I left out the last verse in the quote). Perhaps much of my angst comes from feeling alone in how I view the universe and my relationship to it. When someone else comes along and says that they feel alone in the universe as well, this ironically makes me feel less alone, and more part of a community.
Mayhap I analyze too much…
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