Second Nature
Justin LevineAnd what was if for? The swimming pools, the highways, the ballgames in the dusk, on the battlefield, a type we were so foolish and so young.
Second Nature, Justin Levine
This song was in the musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (which was really fucking clever), but I think it stands on its own. It’s really beautiful.
Ginette Claudette - Second Nature (prod. Spinz)
Second Nature - Ginette Claudette
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January Music Meme Day 5: A Song With The Most Beautiful Lyrics You Know
Second Nature-Rush. Please don’t run away just because you may not like them, this song is really beautiful I promise.
First The Lyrics:
A memo to a higher office
Open letter to the powers that be
To a god, a king, a head of state
A captain of industry
To the movers and the shakers…
Can’t everybody see?
It ought to be second nature
I mean, the places where we live
Let’s talk about this sensibly
We’re not insensitive
I know progress has no patience
But something’s got to give
I know you’re different
You know I’m the same
We’re both too busy
To be taking the blame
I’d like some changes
But you don’t have the time
We can’t go on thinking
It’s a victimless crime
No one is blameless
But we’re all without shame
We fight the fire while we’re feeding the flames
Folks have got to make choices
And choices got to have voices
Folks are basically decent
Conventional wisdom would say
But we read about the exceptions
In the papers every day
It ought to be second nature
At least, that’s what I feel
Now I lay me down in Dreamland
I know perfect’s not for real
I thought we might get closer
But I’m ready to make a deal
Today is different, and tomorrow the same
It’s hard to take the world the way that it came
Too many rapids keep us sweeping along
Too many captains keep on steering us wrong
It’s hard to take the heat
It’s hard to lay blame
To fight the fire while we’re feeding the flames
Now a quote from Neil Peart who wrote the song:
Neil From 1988: “Second Nature” is conciliatory in its message: If we can’t reach perfection in this world then let’s at least settle for some degree of improvement. “Sometimes we have to accept something less than total victory,” notes Peart. “It’s like the difference between compromise and balance. The politician who campaigns for clean air but doesn’t want to close down the stinking factory in his area because thousands of people will lose their jobs. My viewpoint is that I’ll take as much as I can without hurting other people.” (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, Washington, for above 2)
Now my 2 cents
Okay, I know many people may not be fans of Rush, or Geddy Lee’s voice, but you have to admit, when it comes to lyrics, Neil Peart can’t fail. Okay, so the earlier albums were… interesting, but this album in particular ‘Hold Your Fire’ is particularily good. One of my favourites in fact. I love all of the lyrics in this song, it’s so meaningful. I especially like “We fight the fire while we’re feeding the flame.” It’s so true, so many people will fight for a cause, but at the same time be the reason we need to fight. You see so much hypocrisy today because people are so afraid to fully commit. You see people fighting for LGBT* rights but then using the horrible words that they’re saying need to stop. That is one example, and it’s one I see a lot of, and it needs to stop.
I think this song is so well written because it conveys it’s message so well.
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The more the countryside came to resemble a formal garden the more gardens came to resemble countryside. Like the lid of lawn our predecessors put on this farm, the picturesque garden was a dissent against, or a swerving away from, agriculture; by organizing one’s property for consumption rather than production, one could demonstrate his distance from the farm and its lowly social standing.
Second Nature.
It’s very easy to feel inadequate, it’s very easy to feel like you have no good qualities at all yet in reality that is not true.
It’s because the good qualities we have are expressed enough that it has become second nature to us and when things are second nature we just do them without needing to consciously think about them. Our bad qualities though, since we don’t focus on them day to day, have not become second nature to us so we think about them a lot easier than our good qualities.
I guess it is human nature to focus on the bad because we want to solve it in order to get to the good. But once in awhile we need to remind ourselves of the good qualities that we possess.
All it requires is a pen and paper and your willingness to really look at yourself to pick out your good points. You may surprise yourself in the end when you see that the good outweighs the bad.
