Today on the way home from running errands I heard “Name” by the Goo Goo Dolls on the radio. This is probably the 6,349th time I’ve heard it. I went through a period in college where I was a pretty big fan. Every single time I hear this song, however, there is one lyric that drives me mad! (For anyone who needs a refresher, enjoy the music video.)
At one point the adorable Johnny Rzeznik sings:
Scars are souvenirs you never lose
The past is never far
Did you lose yourself somewhere out there?
Did you get to be a star?
And don’t it make you sad to know that life
Is more than who we are
See? Adorable.
I’ve been told that the song is about a college boy trying to get a college girl to spend the night with him. He promises not to tell anyone if she does. For my purposes, however, it doesn’t really matter.
Every time I listen to this song and he sings, “And don’t it make you sad to know that life/ Is more than who we are,” I answer, “No!” Thank God that life is so much more than just ourselves. What sort of petty world would it be when our own wants and needs were enough to make a life? The whole thought seems so self-centered.
There is a whole lot more to life than who we are. There’s love, joy, and family, not to mention war, strife, and poverty. Beyond material things, there’s God (or whatever higher power you hold dear). There’s hope, grace, and kindness.
I say take heart in the fact that our lives are just tiny pixels in the big picture of life. Think of it as one of those photo collages where lots of tiny photos make up one bigger image. We are each a tiny photo. None of us can see the bigger image, but we know it’s there. And that is why I am not sad to know that life is more than who I am.
That's totally not the direction I thought you were going with this. I have always been irked by the whole "don't it" part. "Doesn't it" would not be that hard to fit into the rhythm. =)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, even though I'm pretty sure I've been singing that line wrong for the past 10ish years. :-)
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