Paradise

This song is about unreality of modern love, and the unrealisic ideals we all have about it. ("Average, romanticized, American relationship") Also, it touches on the fact that contentment breeds stagnation. The more content you are, the less you want to change yer situation, and if you don't change, you don't grow as a person.

Boy meets girl, boy gets addicted to the feeling of being in love with her, and realizes that without her, he has no ability to create this wonderful feeling. Moreover, he hates it that she does things without him, cuz if she leaves him for someone else, the feeling of love that he's addicted to will go away, and that's more than he can bear to think about when she's not around. That's what the long lost art of dying is. In this sort of relationship both people are slaves to the feeling that they can't get enough of. To the point that both of them are trapped in a relationship that is utterly stagnant. So, in effect they're both just 'getting busy dying'. They can't bear the feeling of being alone again, but the life they have with each other is an illusion, only existing because neither of them can muster the strength to break the addiction. Over time, they begin to secretly resent each other, and the power they have over each other's emotions. But they both think that they're powerless against their addiction to each other. (Actually, I think the girl's side is slightly less to do with the euphoria of love, and more to do with her delusion that he'll 'heal' her, and be her knight in shining armor. The perfect man. The one that doesn't exist, but the one we all tell all our little girls will come someday to protect them and keep them safe from hurt, forever.)

It's a song telling us to look critically at our relationships and try to decide if you're really in it because you both help and support each other, or if, like the couple in the song, you're just there because you're afraid of losing that euphoria that only the other person can give you, that sense of security and inertia. When all your doing is hanging on, in spite of the fact that neither of you are happy, then you're not living, merely clinging to the feeling, and waiting to die. Much like any pair of junkies.

(Also, I think the lyric 'Hurt became clearer...', is actually 'Her became plural when girl met boy.' Meaning she effectively stopped exsisting outside of the two of them, once they were together. Of course, I could be wrong, I don't have a lyric sheet.)

Rockefeller, brains.account, I think you're close to what that line refers to. Look at the structure of the verses: Boy, Girl, I. Then you get "There's so much world to see what's stopping you from flyin' free."

Boy meets girl. He's conditioned to think that when this happens he is dependent on her to countinue creatiing and clings on to her, because she "makes up for what he lacks."

Girl meets boy. She has scars and when she finds him she believes that he can heal her. But he can't because the scars are her own.

And maybe I'm totally crazy... but a person can't ignore the strong feelings associated with the other no longer being there. It feels like dying.

It's here where you can discover the long lost art of dying. When you're dying because of losing (or thinking you might lose) a love, it really teaches you to live, because "Only the lonely prevent angels from flyin'." And with that understanding you realize that it is a deficit within yourself that is making you feel like you are dying, and, conversely, it is the same twisted deficit that the feeling of being involved with someone (love, or Paradise) is fulfilling. Therefore Paradise is also from you ("Twisted, living off each other's sickness like parasites, this is Paradise").

When Paradise comes up the second time in the verse, Addicted afraid to take control of my own life, this is paradise, it is even a better way to understand how dying teaches you to live. It makes you see that dying is the fight against taking responsibility for our own emotional needs.

The line "There's so much world to see, what's stopping you from flyin' free" refers to the dude keeping the dude from flyin' free equally as much as the chick is keeping the chick from flyin' free. Once you realize that there's so much world to see and not just the other person, you can ask yourself "What's keeping me from flying free?

This song starts off with a "boy" who is dependent on this relationship that serves as his addiction. An addiction that is merely damaging him more and is also only covering up his true state of unhappiness within himself ("afraid to take control of my own life"). This also goes along with "Detouring the now" which presents the idea of time and how he is unable to focus on the present state not as a part of the relationship, but as an individual who yet again is "afraid to take control." Instead of assessing and dealing with his fear and loneliness on his own, he uses the relationship which provides him with a "routine bread comfort."

As the song progresses and the relationship deteriorates (he characterizes it as a drug addiction which is lethal), we see a boy who becomes enlightened on his own and of his lack of freedom through his dependence on a relationship. He acknowledges that he is "crazy for holding" on as well as that "losing her is killing [him]" but it is also "teaching [him] to live." Although this does not apply to all cases, this song provides a perfect example of how an addiction and attachment to a relationship also serves to enlighten an individual. Overall, this song and the experience within it is aimed at providing others with this same consciousness of dependency on illusory relationships.

Along with the idea of freedom is the line "only the lonely resent angels for flying." This line is a self reflection that he successfully arrives at after the end of the relationship. At first he indicates that he wanted her to be as involved in the relationship as he was, making it her life. He presents the "slavery" aspect of relationships as one not only relating to power trips but also to "masochistic relationships." In short, he basically illustrates that his reasons for making her as absorbed by the relationship by giving her "guilt trips" and such are because he is "lonely." ("Only the free resent the angels for flying.") Thus, although he initially 'enslaved' her with him and "chained her by the ankle" into this relationships, as the song goes on he sets her free (fly free- my angel). The name of the song "Paradise" is similar to the "Americanized relationships," for both are commonly and continuously romanticized when in fact both are illusions.

This song is mainly referring to the illusion of love that individuals have of "The average American, romanticized relationship." In the song they talk about the tendency of those in a relationship to become attached to one another. The best way I can try to characterize this dependence is for instance through the fact that a lot of people are scared of being lonely and also place their happiness IN other people. Thus, those in a relationship believe they are "fill[ing] the void" through their relationship which provides them with "feeling he can't create all on his own." However, placing ones happiness in others is a false sense of security that only leads to attachment, addiction, and a covering up of the true self; that is, a self that is free, complete, and unattached. It is through becoming conscious of the fact that we do not actually have a void within ourselves but are rather individually complete (happiness included), that we can be content and free.

Simply put, "Heaven ain’t something someone else can give – it’s all inside of me." This quote brings to light the fact that he is free from the illusions of a "romanticized relationship" and at a deeper understanding of himself. He no longer [chains] his partners in a relationship, but rather allows himself and his counterpart to be free.

Finally, the song ends with the repetition of he question "There’s so much world to see, what’s stoppin’ me from flyin’ free?" However, he has already provided us with an account of what is obstructing his individual freedom. In that case, this question is for each person who is listening to his song .

"There's so much world to see, what's stopping YOU from flyin' free?"

i <3 this song.. what does it mean? it means being so in love u'd risk anything.. absolutely ANYTHING it takes..

i think this song is about being so inlove with someone it makes you sick and just causes hella jeaslousy in the relationship. its also about how hard it is for this guy in the song to be without this girl and how he craves being with her every moment. "There’s so much world to see, what’s stoppin’ you from flyin’ free?" i think this means that this dude is so consumed with this lady that hes being held back from everything he could be doing, so he cant really be free because of this chick. thats my guess

i think those lines refer more to the female in the relationship as the way he controls her:

He despises the fact she has a life outside of ‘them’ It drives him crazy to think she’s not insanely consumed with him Give her the guilt trip, and maybe she’ll quit livin’ To stay behind his prison walls and loose all individualism

...the way that he's keeping her from being herself is keeping her from flying free. he too is preventing himself from flying free by being so dependant on her and the relationship where he can't be happy without her.

He's so obsessed with her, he doesn't trust her... so he abuses her when he's doped up... The twist is she's so obsessed with him, she takes the punishment.

PS: The chorus is is, of course, asking them why they are there, in that relationship, in that place. "Only the lonely resent angels for flyin'" is saying that, if they truly loved each other, and weren't simply clinging to each other because of fear and inertia, they could let the other go, without resenting the fact that they're leaving. And in fact, could be happy to see someone they love actually living, even if it didn't involve them.

Many young and modern relationships resemble the type he speaks of. It seems that so many relationships are fucked up over jealousy and insecurities. "I’m dying without you, but it’s teaching me to live Heaven ain’t something someone else can give – it’s all inside of me" this verse is so incredible. i don't know what type of religion i am perhaps universal but that really grasps one of the concepts i believe in.

i think this song tells a story from three peoples perspectives. at first he speaks using words like he and her refering to other people than himself, then describes that she is slave to their relationship

"He’s a - puppet to nature, one year later now So deeply and sickly in love, it makes him hate her The average romanticized, American relationship Sinks, capsized, when either side becomes a slave to it "

still speaking of 'him' Eyedea tells you where he comes in to play when this line comes

"He needs that feeling that he can’t create all on his own He despises the fact she has a life outside of ‘them’"

i think that what he's saying is that the guy he refers to as him and the girl were no longer together and that eyedea was "the life outside of them". but then "He can’t imagine life without someone like that." so he guilt trips her into staying with him in this line

"Give her the guilt trip, and maybe she’ll quit livin’ To stay behind his prison walls and loose all individualism"

so she falls behind his prison walls and becomes trapped and at that point committed to him then she grows apart from him but fears him leaving her

"Suffering from post-honeymoon disease, leeched to his whole existence She’ll die if he decides to leave Addicted to the way she feels when they spend time together Detouring the now, in a childish attempt to find forever Despite the fact they hold each other heart-to-heart You can’t be that close to somebody, without being so far apart"

i think the chorus then tells both sides 'paradise' or the situation they were put in

"We’ve rediscovered the long lost art of dyin’ Only the lonely resent angels for flyin’ Twisted, living off each other’s sickness, like parasites this is paradise" This is her path living off of eachothers s sicknesses

We’ve rediscovered the long lost art of dyin’ Only the lonely resent angels for flyin’ Addicted, afraid to take control of my own life This is paradise This is Eyedea's 'paradise' or situation where he cant take control of his life because he cant let her go

in both it has the line "only the lonely resent angels from flying" i think this means that both men feel lonely and thats why neither can give her up but then the last verse seems like a final word to her saying that he cant get over her but reminding her not to cling to false obsession but rather to fly free and that he will try to do the same

"Silence is the most obscure sound I’ve ever heard Those lonely, giant spaces in-between your every word And maybe I’m totally crazy for holdin’ on But, just cause I’m insane don’t mean that I’m wrong Now that you’re gone I can’t sleep at night, I barely even function right My memory’s on overdrive, to hungry and too cold to cry Miss the companionship I once took for granted The way you helped me manage, the partnership that vanished But I don’t expect you to stay chained by the ankle There’s so much world to see, so, fly free ~ my angel I’m dying without you, but it’s teaching me to live Heaven ain’t something someone else can give – it’s all inside of me "