![]() Given that lightning bolts have been associated with deities since the beginning of time (think Zeus, etc), it's use is no mistake. The use of lightning bolts I think is highly symbolic, and still up for interpretation. When the reaper he reaches and touches my hand. Also note that this was written in 2004, three years after 9/11 (an attack not catalyzed by religion, but one that Islamic extremists frequently justified with religious language) and one year after the Iraq War (also not catalyzed by religion, but where-in justifying it-Bush invoked God and Christianity more than any modern president since Wilson during WWI). This reminds me of events like the Crusades, the KKK's use of religion, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (which has much more to do with land, but where religion is often a subtext). Those of us who are particularly devout will become destructive little "gods" ourselves, using religion as an excuse to destroy things to feed our own messianic complexes. If we don't sever our umbilical connection to religion, our "bodies will get bigger" but we will never emotionally grow, and our hearts will get torn up. This is maybe the most explicit passage dealing with religion. We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up. Turning the "summer into dust" particularly seems to suggest a religion-based war. Here, he urges everyone-particularly the young, future generations-to throw off the mind-constricting shackles of religion, before "they"-those who pervert religion in order to justify war, terrorism, intolerance (racial/sexual/bigotry toward other religions), etc-end up permanently damaging or ruining the future. Now that he's grown older, he sees that religion is false-though he acknowledges that this revelation comes with increased cynicism/less blissful innocence ("my heart's colder") This refers to being "filled up" with religion ("nothin'") as a child being told "not to cry" or feel fear about death, because it's a "fact" that you'll be going to a happy place. ![]()
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