"Growing up," in the sense of no longer being a little kid, is a tangential aspect of the larger phenomenon this song is about. Consider the lines:
"You got it bad;
You got it good.
You saw the sun
Like you knew that you would.
We gotta make this better,
Gotta make this right.
Ain't no peace in the valley baby
'Til the darkness turns to light."
The subject is in a difficult but nonetheless good situation, because he "saw the sun." "Sun"/"son" is a pun used throughout this album with several layers of meaning, one of which is "Jesus" (as in the son of God, the light of truth).
This song depicts the continuing struggle that begins in the song "Voodoo Lady" and recurs in "Where Fishes Go" and "Feel the Quiet River Rage," the internal struggle of whether or not the person should choose to accept his newly discovered spirituality or remain concerned only with the material world.
The internal nature of the conflict going on in the fellow's head leads me to think of this as a song where he's talking to himself. However, I think there's an intentional double-meaning where the person saying "you got it bad lover" etc. could be understood to be Ed's lover talking to him, because we learn elsewhere that it is through this love that he has found Jesus/spirituality, so to speak.
But it's not easy to accept a life of spiritual love. It is painful, challenging, frightening, and a lot of work. But more importantly than all that, it requires that you abandon your own self and surrender your will to love/Jesus. This "dying to yourself" is why people call themselves "born again" Christians -- their own selves have died, and a new self is born who is controlled by Jesus (Live would refer to this person as "the one" or something else less specific).
This is where we get "the face of one ravaged by love," and this is why "it's both dead and alive." It is, to quote Paul, "dead to the flesh" ("flesh" not meaning sex, but rather the physical world) but alive in Christ (Ed's new-found spirituality).
The lyrics about children and nature build other layers of meaning on top of this starting point. The juxtaposition in the lines "can you hear that children's song?/ can you take me to that place?/ do you hear that pilgrim's song?/ can you take me there?" suggest Ed is implying a parallel or similarity between being childlike and being a pilgrim (seeker of God). Jesus certainly did tell people to have the faith of a child.
"Growing up," in the sense of no longer being a little kid, is a tangential aspect of the larger phenomenon this song is about. Consider the lines:
"You got it bad; You got it good. You saw the sun Like you knew that you would. We gotta make this better, Gotta make this right. Ain't no peace in the valley baby 'Til the darkness turns to light."
The subject is in a difficult but nonetheless good situation, because he "saw the sun." "Sun"/"son" is a pun used throughout this album with several layers of meaning, one of which is "Jesus" (as in the son of God, the light of truth).
This song depicts the continuing struggle that begins in the song "Voodoo Lady" and recurs in "Where Fishes Go" and "Feel the Quiet River Rage," the internal struggle of whether or not the person should choose to accept his newly discovered spirituality or remain concerned only with the material world.
The internal nature of the conflict going on in the fellow's head leads me to think of this as a song where he's talking to himself. However, I think there's an intentional double-meaning where the person saying "you got it bad lover" etc. could be understood to be Ed's lover talking to him, because we learn elsewhere that it is through this love that he has found Jesus/spirituality, so to speak.
But it's not easy to accept a life of spiritual love. It is painful, challenging, frightening, and a lot of work. But more importantly than all that, it requires that you abandon your own self and surrender your will to love/Jesus. This "dying to yourself" is why people call themselves "born again" Christians -- their own selves have died, and a new self is born who is controlled by Jesus (Live would refer to this person as "the one" or something else less specific).
This is where we get "the face of one ravaged by love," and this is why "it's both dead and alive." It is, to quote Paul, "dead to the flesh" ("flesh" not meaning sex, but rather the physical world) but alive in Christ (Ed's new-found spirituality).
The lyrics about children and nature build other layers of meaning on top of this starting point. The juxtaposition in the lines "can you hear that children's song?/ can you take me to that place?/ do you hear that pilgrim's song?/ can you take me there?" suggest Ed is implying a parallel or similarity between being childlike and being a pilgrim (seeker of God). Jesus certainly did tell people to have the faith of a child.