Time for a serious post:
I can't sleep. Lately it's been one of those things that's escaping me..like joy, peace, happiness, and the need to do anything constructive. I feel like life is passing me by, and all I can do is sit on some cold curb and watch the parade go on by. Naturally, I'm wearing a smile and pretending to enjoy the show, but in reality I'm choking back tears.
It seems like I'm always where I don't really want to be. And here I sit waiting to hear one little word from them, and feeling frustrated for what I've heard. For whole this while, I had been battling an emotional breakdown. The funny thing is that I put on my "mask" again and pretended I was okay and that things here were hunky dory...yeah...why rain on their parade? Sadly, I promised her I wouldn't wear a mask before her anymore...but...I don't think anyone else can handle the burden WE have to bear.
The utter hopelessness of this situation is a downer...but I still have to believe that God is working. I'm talking to someone on MSN about this and that....I doubt she realizes she's my lifeline right now. I only hope one day I can return the favor....
Sometimes I wonder if God can still used a crumpled mess like myself? These thoughts fly through my head all night, and when I do sleep, my dreams are wretched, weird, and disorienting. Sometimes they are so realisitic, it's hard to separate truth from reality. Other times I wonder if there's actually a difference between the two.
My friend and I were driving home tonight from a regilar mamak-ing. For once, the downpour of rain resonating from the windshield accompanied me in my lonliness. It felt like God was crying with me, a common metaphor, and yet one that offered me a bit of comfort. Matchbox 20 was in the car's CD player, and I reached an emotional climax when I heard the song, "Unwell" start.
It's a song that has characterized my life that past few months. Funny there's a top 40 song about struggling with mental illness, if that's what Rob Thomas and the gang are truly singing about. "I'm not crazy/I'm just a little unwell..." What if I'm both? I listened to the song and deeply pondered the lyrics..not for the first time, and most assuredly not the last time..... It's weird how Matchbox 20 songs can speak to me more than any other songs these days.
Of course, now as I type and try to lull myself to sleep, I'm listening to Forever Love, by X-Japan...a marvelous band I first heard in 2002.
Another song I've been thinking about lately is by BOB Dylan. It's called "It's Alright, Ma, I'm Only Bleeding." How many times I've been tempted to bring it up with my family? It is like, yeah, I'm okay everyone...I'll make you laugh...I'm only bleeding. "Tears of a Clown" is another great song...a performer who made the world laugh cried himself to sleep every night....that's me...except I can't sleep...
I wonder...would you like me, accept me, and still call me your friend, son, associate if I showed you the real me? How much reality can people handle?
Matchbox 20
"Unwell"
All day
Staring at the ceiling
Making friends with shadows on my wall
All night
Hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good for something
Hold on
I'm feeling like I'm headed for a
Breakdown
I don't know why
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know, right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be
Me
Talking to myself in public
Dodging glances on the train
I know
I know they've all been talking 'bout me
I can hear them whisper
And it makes me think there must be something wrong
With me
Out of all the hours thinking
Somehow
I've lost my mind
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired
I know right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be
I been talking in my sleep
Pretty soon they'll come to get me
Yeah, they're taking me away
I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell
I know, right now you can't tell
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see
A different side of me
I'm not crazy I'm just a little impaired
I know, right now you don't care
But soon enough you're gonna think of me
And how I used to be
Hey, how I used to be
How I used to be, yeah
Well I'm just a little unwell
How I used to be
How I used to be
Bob Dylan
"It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying.
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece
The hollow horn plays wasted words
Proves to warn
That he not busy being born
Is busy dying.
Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover
That you'd just be
One more person crying.
So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing.
As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
Except hatred.
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.
While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.
Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
All around you.
You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks
They really found you.
A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy
Insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not fergit
That it is not he or she or them or it
That you belong to.
Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to.
For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
Nothing more than something
They invest in.
While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
And then say God bless him.
While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
That he's in.
But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him.
Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.
While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes
Must get lonely.
My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
What else can you show me?
And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only.
Copyright © 1965; renewed 1993 Special Rider Music
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