Shasta (Carrie's Song)

This song is about a woman who drove to California to get an abortion, but she couldn't go through with it, and is driving home on highway 5, thinking about the recent events, and how her family is going to react to her situation, and her decision not to go through with it.

"And you're thinking about how someone died that day, the you that was so carefully planned"

This is a play on words - an allusion to the abortion that didn't happen. The "someone" who died was not the fetus as one might expect, but instead, Carrie's vision of herself. She had always imagined that she would have a normal life -- not one filled with the trauma that comes with the situation of an unwanted pregnancy. That vision of who she had always thought she was going to be -- the normal life -- "died" that day -- her life will never be the same going forward.

I belive this song is describing a woman on her way to the abortion clinic, and all the hardship she had to go through: "explanations for a life half-broken away and they just may they'll take you in their arms and then take out their knives... couldn't stand the thought of ghosts with a negative age"

and even feelilng guilt thinking she might be opposing God 'Jesus knows what you've been through take the Savior into your heart my child there's love waiting for the both of you'

But in the end, she realizes that she wasn't really ready for a child anyway, but someday she will be. "

It's definitely about a girl who's driving away from an abortion clinic without having had the abortion. She's just driving without really knowing where she's going at this point and thinking about the baby.

I think the girl's family or friends (or perhaps boyfriend) want her to go through with it, since she fears if she goes back: "they'll take you in their arms and then take out their knives"

But she got to the abortion clinic and the "nice Christian lady" took away her resolve, plus she never really wanted to do it in the first place because of the guilt: "couldn't stand the thought of ghosts with a negative age"

"and you're thinking about how someone died that day the you that was so carefully planned but then again maybe this life is like a sleeping mountain waking up to shape the land" These lines reinforce that it was an unplanned pregnancy, but from the last two lines it seems that she has decided to keep the baby. I think the end of the song is a little ambiguous, so you can really interpret it either way, but mainly based on the tone of the song I don't think she decided to go through with it after all.

yep, my thoughts exactly.

Weird how the song sounds so happy, though.

yep, my thoughts exactly.

Weird how the song sounds so happy, though.

This song manages to cited a "ficticious" example of a person having an abortion,(or at least the confusion over it) without going all political.

Hm, it seems like it's a woman who intends to have an abortion because she's put into a bad situation "tears that once did flow, starting ten o'clock and ending at dawn." She ends up driving back after not doing it, though, "you put a hand to the belly that's foriegn more with every day like an oversized load." She's scared of how people will react "they'll take your in your arms and then they'll take out their knives," so she keeps on driving. As she does, she's thinking about the woman who was "handing out pamphlets by the clinic door saying "Jesus knows what you've been through. Take the Savior into your heart my child, there's love waiting for the both of you."" She ends up thinking about, ironically, "somebody died that day, the you that was so carefully planned," and she knows her life will never be the same, but "maybe this life is like a sleeping mountain, waking up to shake the land."

(By the way, I'm not pro-life or pro-choice in this. It's all personal.)

Just wanted to give my two cents on the this last verse:

"and you're thinking about how someone died that day the you that was so carefully planned but then again maybe this life is like a sleeping mountain waking up to shape the land"

She's not thinking about how she got an abortion that day--she's thinking about how while her birth was carefully planned, on the day she was born another woman probably had an abortion. Does that make any sense?

Then she ends the song on a positive note: having a baby doesn't mean the end of the world, just change. ("shape that land")

I'm pretty sure these lines (and you're thinking about how someone died that day - the you that was so carefully planned) refer to the "old" her. As is the case with most people, she had everything planned as far as getting married, then having children, etc. The day she got pregnant - since she is going to keep the baby - is the day that "someone" (the old her that had everything planned) died.

I love the comments and the song. I randomly picked up this CD at the library and I am glad I did.

"Ghosts with a negative age" is a reference to aborted babies. So Carrie decided to not get an abortion. Straw, agreed, the "old you" is her after changing her mind for this momentous decision. She is NEW and the baby on the way.