In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Striking at mental apparitions
Like a drunk on a vacant street
Silently beset by the hands of time
And elegant in its fury
An aberrant crack as skeletons yield
To unrelenting gravity
While viruses prowl for helpless victims
Who succumb rapidly
[Chorus]
(Tell me!) Tell me, where is the love?
In a careless creation
When there's no "above"
There's no justice
Just a cause and no cure
And a bounty of suffering
It seems we all endure
And what I'm frightened of
Is that they call it "God's love"
Well we twist in torment and make believe
There's a truth and we all submit
"Believe my eyes," my brain replies
To all that they interpret
[Chorus]
I know there's no reason for alarm
But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm
We can change our minds, there's a better prize
But first you've got to
[Chorus]
They call it God's love
My pain is God's love
Like a drunk on a vacant street
Silently beset by the hands of time
And elegant in its fury
An aberrant crack as skeletons yield
To unrelenting gravity
While viruses prowl for helpless victims
Who succumb rapidly
[Chorus]
(Tell me!) Tell me, where is the love?
In a careless creation
When there's no "above"
There's no justice
Just a cause and no cure
And a bounty of suffering
It seems we all endure
And what I'm frightened of
Is that they call it "God's love"
Well we twist in torment and make believe
There's a truth and we all submit
"Believe my eyes," my brain replies
To all that they interpret
[Chorus]
I know there's no reason for alarm
But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm
We can change our minds, there's a better prize
But first you've got to
[Chorus]
They call it God's love
My pain is God's love
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I think that what they are trying to point out is the stupidity of Christian teaching, how when they don't have an explanation, they resort to "It was God's plan," or "God's Love." In the middle portion when they say "I know there's no reason for alarm," they are saying "Maybe I'm overreacting." But then he looks out at the world, and how pathetically detached the American Christian Right is from the suffering they talk of: "But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm" He then realizes that the answers that he's been fed from when he was born are false, or at least incomplete, because he still has all these unanswered questions: "Where is the love?/In a careless creation/When there's no above."