Hm, I hear something a bit different. To me it's a song about the existence of God, and Aaron's asserting that God is there whether or not you believe it. And he puts it so wonderfully that I'd really like to believe myself...
The cat, the peacock and the woman represent 3 different reasons why people might not believe in God. For the cat, it's just ignorance - if I can't see anyone then there's no one there - which is obviously stupid. If the cat stopped to think, it might wonder where the bowl of milk came from. 'A glass can only spill what it contains' might thus be about creation in this case. i.e. the things we enjoy are only there because someone put them there, as a glass is only as full as someone has filled it.
The peacock is my favourite. What a perfect metaphor! I think it represents the free thinker. The peacock thinks it's free because it's comparing itself to others who are in cages. It thinks it is in control of its own fate. It can go anywhere, and no one can tell it what to do. But it doesn't realise that the world it knows is only a microcosm - the real world is unthinkably bigger and more complex - and it is only free within that tiny world because the zookeepers choose to indulge it. If they did decide to crack down, the peacock couldn't possibly resist. The glass in this case is the mind. We may take pride in our minds, and show off about the liberality of our ideas, but we can't really take credit for them; we're only capable of what God made us capable of. We can only produce according to what God has given us.
The woman is someone who thinks people only believe in God because they want to - because it feels nice to believe that someone's watching over you, who knows you and knows your name. But she won't have that; she's got enough courage to face her aloneness in the world. But what she doesn't see, that the singer does see, is that in fact her aloneness is making her miserable, and that anyhow she's playing with ideas that are too big for her or for anyone ('dressing in our parents' clothes'). They're too big for him too, and he can't persuade her to change her mind, but unlike her, he's prepared to admit his ignorance on the theism question. The 'glass' line here reminds me of Jesus saying in Luke 6:44f that 'Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers...Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.' She doesn't 'contain' the peace that the singer has because she's clinging to what she's decided is true, and unhappiness 'spills' out.
I think the rest of the song, the parts about Jesus, uses the 'glass' line to show how Jesus leveled the playing field. By showing that no one is anything more than what God made them, he totally disarmed pride ('turned around the praise and blame').
I really like how Aaron acknowledges his own doubts. For him, the extraordinary life of Jesus seems to tilt the balance and woo him into believing in God (rather than reasoning him into it). It's still a mystery, but just as Jesus so bizarrely chose not to answer his accusers at his trial, so God seems to choose not to answer all our questions, and remain a mystery. For some reason s/he seems to like it that way.
Awesome song. The philosophy isn't watertight, but it's compelling at a gut level, and that's kind of the point. I think I'm a little more inclined towards theism after thinking about this song. Though that might just be because I was stung by the satire, since it's all directed at people just like me...
Hm, I hear something a bit different. To me it's a song about the existence of God, and Aaron's asserting that God is there whether or not you believe it. And he puts it so wonderfully that I'd really like to believe myself...
The cat, the peacock and the woman represent 3 different reasons why people might not believe in God. For the cat, it's just ignorance - if I can't see anyone then there's no one there - which is obviously stupid. If the cat stopped to think, it might wonder where the bowl of milk came from. 'A glass can only spill what it contains' might thus be about creation in this case. i.e. the things we enjoy are only there because someone put them there, as a glass is only as full as someone has filled it.
The peacock is my favourite. What a perfect metaphor! I think it represents the free thinker. The peacock thinks it's free because it's comparing itself to others who are in cages. It thinks it is in control of its own fate. It can go anywhere, and no one can tell it what to do. But it doesn't realise that the world it knows is only a microcosm - the real world is unthinkably bigger and more complex - and it is only free within that tiny world because the zookeepers choose to indulge it. If they did decide to crack down, the peacock couldn't possibly resist. The glass in this case is the mind. We may take pride in our minds, and show off about the liberality of our ideas, but we can't really take credit for them; we're only capable of what God made us capable of. We can only produce according to what God has given us.
The woman is someone who thinks people only believe in God because they want to - because it feels nice to believe that someone's watching over you, who knows you and knows your name. But she won't have that; she's got enough courage to face her aloneness in the world. But what she doesn't see, that the singer does see, is that in fact her aloneness is making her miserable, and that anyhow she's playing with ideas that are too big for her or for anyone ('dressing in our parents' clothes'). They're too big for him too, and he can't persuade her to change her mind, but unlike her, he's prepared to admit his ignorance on the theism question. The 'glass' line here reminds me of Jesus saying in Luke 6:44f that 'Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers...Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.' She doesn't 'contain' the peace that the singer has because she's clinging to what she's decided is true, and unhappiness 'spills' out.
I think the rest of the song, the parts about Jesus, uses the 'glass' line to show how Jesus leveled the playing field. By showing that no one is anything more than what God made them, he totally disarmed pride ('turned around the praise and blame').
I really like how Aaron acknowledges his own doubts. For him, the extraordinary life of Jesus seems to tilt the balance and woo him into believing in God (rather than reasoning him into it). It's still a mystery, but just as Jesus so bizarrely chose not to answer his accusers at his trial, so God seems to choose not to answer all our questions, and remain a mystery. For some reason s/he seems to like it that way.
Awesome song. The philosophy isn't watertight, but it's compelling at a gut level, and that's kind of the point. I think I'm a little more inclined towards theism after thinking about this song. Though that might just be because I was stung by the satire, since it's all directed at people just like me...