Life Is A Flower

The reference to Catcher in the Rye puzzles me. The Catcher in the Rye is a dark depressing novel about a young man who doesn't feel he fits in society and tries to understand himself. The part where "no catcher in the rye can help you from yourself" seems to contradict with the optimistic tone of this song...

This is my interpretation of the meaning of the song:

I think a broad theme running through the song is this idea of a "free world". Life is like a flower because it is precious, but also because it is fragile and requires a free world in which to fully realize its beauty. A free world is like the rich soil that the flower of life grows in and flourishes.

Luckily, as the song points out, we do indeed live in a free world. If this free world provides the soil for the flower of life to grow in, then what is the problem? The problem often comes from us as individuals. If the world is free, but a person shelters parts of himself from others and thus doesn't fully connect to the world, then does it matter that he is living in a free world? Perhaps not, because he would then be "living without life." This is where the comments about "Mr. Jailer", "Mr. Agony", and "The Catcher in the Rye" come into play. All three of these aforementioned names refer to the individual himself.

The singer says "I can not be your judge" because of the fact that you are your own judge as an individual. You are your own host, "Mr. Jailer", because you lock away parts of yourself from the world. Perhaps you are doing this to protect yourself. In the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Holden wants to be the one who catches children (who in his dream are playing in a rye field near a cliff) from falling off the cliff. Symbolically, he wants to prevent them from falling out of the innocence and protection of childhood. He wants to prevent them from being exposed to the realities of the world. In your case, it works in reverse: you want to prevent the realities of yourself from being exposed to the world.

It's important for me to note that I believe the happiness of the song comes from the fact that the singer has revealed and come to terms with those vulnerable pieces of herself. She "whistle(s) down the wind" and sings in an upbeat way because she is a fully free person living in a free world. However, while rejoicing about her own freedom from herself, she wants to make her audience away that they may not yet be free from themselves.

The main message: in order for your own life's beautiful flower to fully flourish in our free world, you must free the parts of yourself that you are locking away. When you lock away, it is like you are trying to catch yourself before you fall into the harm that might occur from exposing these parts. While this may feel safe in the short run, it ultimately causes agony because you are restricting yourself. There ends up being disconnect between the free world and your freedom as an individual.

i think this song is really beautiful and in the chorus i see how precious and beautiful life is.

I remember when I was really really sad and my friend came over and sang this song to me, it really made me feel better... :)

i love this song it lifts my mood when im not feeling so good :D