I agree that the lyrics are wrong here and elsewhere:
We are MATURE children
also, in many places it says "Changes forever" when it's "Take us forever", like here.
Now here's my interpretation, and I have to say one tiny line has really had a HUGE impact on my life: "Whisper to a scream"
To me, this song is about the difficulties of discussing, debating, and in the end arguing. It's such a necessary part of doing anything together in a group. But in both personal relationships and in politics, it so often degrades into everyone screaming at the top of their lungs, and never getting anywhere. We choose the loudest words, the words that most hurt, over the words that would really make a difference in getting us somewhere.
If I were to write this song, the parallel I'd try isn't with birds, but with fighting dogs. When I was a kid, I had a pitbull, really a sweet thing, but would get in a lot of scraps with other dogs... As a kid, I would sometimes have to pull them apart, and it was there that this song really started resonating with me: I found that the more I yelled at my dog to stop fighting, the more excited he got. So I had to learn to jump in the middle of the violence, and start soothing him. Soft words, petting, anything to calm him down and "change the subject" - a whisper to a scream.
And this is what I see over and over again with people: the worst thing you can do when you disagree is to yell at them, but it's the hardest thing to do, to learn to pull back and speak in a whisper rather than adding fuel to the fire. "Take us forever" has a double meaning to me: it seems like it takes forever to get a point across when you decide to slow down and cool off. And, it will take forever for all of us mature children to learn how to whisper to a scream.
I agree that the lyrics are wrong here and elsewhere: We are MATURE children
also, in many places it says "Changes forever" when it's "Take us forever", like here.
Now here's my interpretation, and I have to say one tiny line has really had a HUGE impact on my life: "Whisper to a scream"
To me, this song is about the difficulties of discussing, debating, and in the end arguing. It's such a necessary part of doing anything together in a group. But in both personal relationships and in politics, it so often degrades into everyone screaming at the top of their lungs, and never getting anywhere. We choose the loudest words, the words that most hurt, over the words that would really make a difference in getting us somewhere.
If I were to write this song, the parallel I'd try isn't with birds, but with fighting dogs. When I was a kid, I had a pitbull, really a sweet thing, but would get in a lot of scraps with other dogs... As a kid, I would sometimes have to pull them apart, and it was there that this song really started resonating with me: I found that the more I yelled at my dog to stop fighting, the more excited he got. So I had to learn to jump in the middle of the violence, and start soothing him. Soft words, petting, anything to calm him down and "change the subject" - a whisper to a scream.
And this is what I see over and over again with people: the worst thing you can do when you disagree is to yell at them, but it's the hardest thing to do, to learn to pull back and speak in a whisper rather than adding fuel to the fire. "Take us forever" has a double meaning to me: it seems like it takes forever to get a point across when you decide to slow down and cool off. And, it will take forever for all of us mature children to learn how to whisper to a scream.