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So-Called Chaos Lyrics

Deadlines and meetings and contracts all breached
d-days and structure, responsibility
Have to's and need to's, get to's by three
Eleventh hours and upset employees

I want to be naked running through the streets
I want to invite this so-called chaos that you think I dare not be
I want to be weightless flying through the air
I want to drop all these limitations but the shoes upon my feet

Heartburn and headaches and soon-to-be ulcers
Compulsive yearnings non-stop to please others

I want to be naked running through the streets
I want to invite this so-called chaos that you think I dare not be
I want to be weightless flying through the air
I want to drop all these limitations but the shoes upon my feet

All won't be lost if I'm governed by my own innate-ness
The stoplights won't work, I'll get home sound and safe regardless
won't be mayhem if I'm ruled by my own rule-lessness
my fire won't quell and I'll be harm-free and distress-less (trust me)

Line-towing and helping
Expectations-up-to living
Inside-box-obeying
Inside-line-coloring

I want to be naked running through the streets
I want to invite this so-called chaos that you think I dare not be
I want to be weightless flying through the air
I want to drop all my limitations but the shoes upon my feet

I want to be naked running through the streets
I want to invite this so-called chaos that you think I dare not be
I want to be weightless flying through the air
I want to drop all these limitations and return to what I was born to be
Song Info
Submitted by
geekusa On May 21, 2004
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4 Meanings

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Cover art for So-Called Chaos lyrics by Alanis Morissette

although there is better on the album, I think this song is really powerful

Cover art for So-Called Chaos lyrics by Alanis Morissette

I think she's saying, yeah, because of her lifestyle, she has loadsa demands on her, but she's saying bring it on! She's inviting the people that seem to think she can't manage it to give her more to do, but at the same time saying she can cope without all these limitations, she can handle disorganisation, she hasn't become dependant on anything...do you think?

Cover art for So-Called Chaos lyrics by Alanis Morissette

I beleive that in this song alanis is speaking our lives or the lives of modern society as well as her own. Not only is she expressing the experience of oppression by schedules, pressure and expectations but declaring her intense desire for freedom - to be naked running through the streets with no limitation but the shoes upon her feet.

And then - this just get clear to me yesterday - the bridge - "I won't be lost if I'm governed by my own inateness" etc. is her embrasing a new truth - that perhaps she can drop all the worldly pressures and trust herself, be present, act from her intuition, live by her own rules and all wil bel well "(trust me)".

thanks for giving me a place to share this.

Cover art for So-Called Chaos lyrics by Alanis Morissette

One of the things that endears her most to me (maybe even =the= thing, really) is that Al can tolerate ambiguity and conflict -- and then =talk= about it -- like almost no one else I've ever encountered. I've seen people who can =do= this as well as people who can =describe= the capacity (conceptually) as a (probably unattainable) life goal.

Those who can do it are usually CEOs, presidents, big-time talent managers and "leaders of the free world." Those who can describe it are usually poets or psychology professors. But someone who can do it =and= describe it? For me, at least, that's rare.

Alanis may or may not be addicted to both perfection and stimulation after 23 years at her trade, but regardless of whether she is or isn't, she does a pretty fair job of racing along on the tips of the pickets without falling off (for long). Yeah; she gains 30 lbs. here and blows it off in two months there (probably =not= a great idea), but the persona she manages to present to the world on stage or across the table in an interview is so =conscious= and "on top of it" that whatever chaos there is in her (200-mile-per-hour?) life =seems= under control.

The woman journals and meditates a lot. So do I since I started paying attention to her 13 years ago. =I= can handle a lot more ambiguity, conflict and chaos as a result. Maybe that's how =she= does it.