Easy

I think this was written as a pseudo-conversation b/t Jesus and Joanna. I don't usually pickup on the religious/spiritual under/overtones in her music (even on this album- jackrabbits is the only other song i see any spiritual struggle in... at least for now), but i can't hear anything else in this song. Before I go any further, I should say a few things: 1) I could definitely be projecting here, as I come from a family that is constantly trying to lure me into Christianity with sentiments like "Jesus just wants to love you", "It doesn't have to be as difficult as you make it, God already loves you just the way you are now."... etc, etc, etc. 2) I'm a religious studies minor (philosophy major), thus the excessive biblical references; but i'm graduating this semester, thus the complete lack of actual ch:vs references. 3) I'd love to hear/read what this is actually about... i know this "meaning" i hear could really just be ridiculous.

....So (finally) here's my verse-by-verse interpretation:

Easy, easy. My man and me, we could rest and remain here, easily. We are tested and pained
by what's beyond our bed. We are blessed and sustained by what is not said. ^^"my man and me"... a tongue-in-cheek reference to contemporary christianity for the emphasis of a "PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP!" w/ JC? remaining in christianity is the easiest route if you were raised in it, though a christian lifestyle faces unique tests/pains outside the comfort (bed?) of the xian community. blessing and sustainment are promised throughout the Bible (Old+New testaments) to those that follow God/JC... but moreso I'm thinking the last 2 lines either refer to "the meek shall inherit the earth", or how you're supposed to feel "blessed and sustained" by a figure (JC) who isn't really here to say anything to you.

No-one knows what is coming, or who will harvest what we have sewn, or how I've been dulling, and dumbing, in the service of the heart alone, ^^^ apocalyptic fears and "reaping what you sew" in lines 1+2? religion and spirituality are notorious for being "matters of the heart, not the intellect" (dulling and dumbing)? frustrations with relying on faith alone?

or how I am worn to the bone by the river, and, in the river made of light, I'm your little life-giver. I will give my life. ^^^I feel like this is where her JC narrative comes in, "worn to the bone, BY the river"= crucified/tortured... but then "in river of light/life giver/giver you my life"= river of light referring to the resurrection, which is what gives the believers eternal life (right?). JC gave his mortal life for believers' eternity.

Haven't you seen what I've seen? Don't you know what you ought to do? I was born to love, and I intend to love you. ^^^"i was born to love"= "god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, so that you may seek everlasting life"... JC knows all the shitty-ness of our existence and just wants to make it better?

Down in the valley, where the fields are green, Watch my luck turn, fro and to; pluck every last daisy clean, till only I may love you. ^^^"yea though i walk through the valley of the shadows of death"... and the picking of daisies "till only i may love you"= a reference to God being a "jealous god"... wanting no other deity/thing before him?

I am easy, easy to keep. Honey, you please me even in your sleep. But my arms want to carry. My heart wants to hold. Tell me your worries. I want to be told. ^^^OK- this is an entire verse of the (sweet-tender-father-figure) JC quotes, just written in the vernacular.

Sit, and see how the fog, from the port in the bay, lays like snow at the foot of the roanoke; ^^^ehhhh.... i know this is a HUGE stretch.... fog laying like snow= not being able to see what is/isn't in front of you a port= an entrance point *foot of roanoke (the river?)= another eternity reference? ....this verse seemed out of place until I thought that, in context, perhaps this is an allusion to the overwhelming difficulty and confusion one faces when loosing faith (or beginning/attempting to revive it)?

hear the frog, going courting, till the day he croaks, saying, even then, There is light in the river. There is a river made of light. C'mon, little life-giver. Give your life. ^^^I haven't the slightest here. Is this a reference to the folk song? because that frog gets eaten by a duck IN the river, after running away from the brutal murder scene of his fiance mouse and her uncle rat. haha... obviously i'm missing something here! help!

Who asked you? Who asked you if you want to be loved by me? Who died, and made you in charge of who loves who? ^^^this tone is exactly that of the JC from the gospels, particularly in the letters of paul... (in his early career, JC was kinda douchey and could totally talk shit to a person/mass of people while simultaneously converting them to the new school of thought).

All the livelong day, if I have my way, I will love you. But One can't carry the weight, or change the fate, of Two. I've been waiting for a break. How long's it gonna take? Let me love you. How about it? How about what I have to say? How about that livelong day? How am I gonna stay here without you? ^^^this is all about free will? the decision to "accept jesus into your heart"?

Easy, easy. You must not fear. You must meet me, to see me. I am barely here. But, like a Bloody Mary, seen in the mirror: speak my name and I appear. ^^^this is such a perfect closer... "not fear/meet me see me/barely here"= "fear not, for i am with you" (but not really, not in the flesh.)... ...and finally "like a bloody mary, seen in the mirror: speak my name and I appear"= remember playing that game at sleepovers when you were a kid??? the kids who believed they'd see the image would be HORRIFIED and cry into the night/thrill at the rush of such terror and shock; while those of us who had doubts could do it all night without results (while the believers/seers convinced us that is was real, we just weren't doing it right). JC says, "speak my name and believe in me".... ok, you get it.