So says the wise, and attractive, John Nolan of Straylight Run. I'm about to prove his point by ruthlessly picking apart another song lyric that just caught my attention. It's Iron & Wine, from a song called "Fever Dream".
"I want your flowers like babies want God's love."
Let's consider this. How exactly do babies want God's love? It may depend on the definition of a baby. Excluding my mother, who will continue revising her definition of a baby as long as I continue aging, and the Christian Right with its conception fixation, most people would probably agree that a child between zero and three years could be reasonably called a baby. That's a fairly large span of time, development-wise. At the young end of the spectrum, infants don't seem to want much except food, clean diapers, and shiny objects. And possibly the attention of a few adults who have been identified as important and/or present. The older end of the spectrum, three years, is a point at which these babies are old enough to understand simple explanations given by adults, but as I understand it they rarely do much philosophical thinking on their own. So if one were to take a survey of babies, asking in what way exactly they want God's love, what kind of answers might one get?
So, to apply these answers to the song lyric: I want your flowers because Mom said I had to? I want your flowers brrbrrbrrgahbahmmmmv? I want your flowers like POOP?
I have to conclude that it's probably best not to try to give this man any flowers at all. There's just no telling how he'll respond.
Edit: For a more in-depth analysis of the relationship between babies and God's love, please see The Law, in its Majestic Equality.
Posted by dianna at April 11, 2006 07:43 PM