I have actually selected this song to be played someday at my memorial service. (Hopefully many, many years from now.) "Oh, Very Young" contains a very positive, spiritual message about the impermanence of life and how important for us to show love to the people around you while there is still time. I especially love the lyrics: "You're only dancing on this earth for a short while," indicating that brevity of life. I also love the whole second verse. Every time I hear this song I get goosebumps while meditating on the implication of the lyrics and they're beauty. I wish more songs like this existed and more were being written today. True art builds up men's souls. Most of today's garbage tears us apart.
@RDM Good point about true art building up souls, which are the divine, spiritual parts of humans. Too much of today’s garbage either tears us apart or brings us down into unsoulful realms of greed, anger, lust, craving and or vengeance. One point I’d expand on is that I think Cat’s point is not just to love the people around us, but to love humankind overall including future generations that we’ll never meet. Much of the time being kind to people around us benefits us, but not humanity overall. Likewise, sometimes being kind to those around us hurts humanity...
@RDM Good point about true art building up souls, which are the divine, spiritual parts of humans. Too much of today’s garbage either tears us apart or brings us down into unsoulful realms of greed, anger, lust, craving and or vengeance. One point I’d expand on is that I think Cat’s point is not just to love the people around us, but to love humankind overall including future generations that we’ll never meet. Much of the time being kind to people around us benefits us, but not humanity overall. Likewise, sometimes being kind to those around us hurts humanity overall. Take for example a small town of middle-class racists: people who are blatantly racist. If they put a lot of their focus on loving each other, including putting their financial support and time towards helping each other in various loving ways, they’re having a bad impact in two ways: building up and making racists stronger and more powerful; and not helping people who need it far more.
I have actually selected this song to be played someday at my memorial service. (Hopefully many, many years from now.) "Oh, Very Young" contains a very positive, spiritual message about the impermanence of life and how important for us to show love to the people around you while there is still time. I especially love the lyrics: "You're only dancing on this earth for a short while," indicating that brevity of life. I also love the whole second verse. Every time I hear this song I get goosebumps while meditating on the implication of the lyrics and they're beauty. I wish more songs like this existed and more were being written today. True art builds up men's souls. Most of today's garbage tears us apart.
@RDM Good point about true art building up souls, which are the divine, spiritual parts of humans. Too much of today’s garbage either tears us apart or brings us down into unsoulful realms of greed, anger, lust, craving and or vengeance. One point I’d expand on is that I think Cat’s point is not just to love the people around us, but to love humankind overall including future generations that we’ll never meet. Much of the time being kind to people around us benefits us, but not humanity overall. Likewise, sometimes being kind to those around us hurts humanity...
@RDM Good point about true art building up souls, which are the divine, spiritual parts of humans. Too much of today’s garbage either tears us apart or brings us down into unsoulful realms of greed, anger, lust, craving and or vengeance. One point I’d expand on is that I think Cat’s point is not just to love the people around us, but to love humankind overall including future generations that we’ll never meet. Much of the time being kind to people around us benefits us, but not humanity overall. Likewise, sometimes being kind to those around us hurts humanity overall. Take for example a small town of middle-class racists: people who are blatantly racist. If they put a lot of their focus on loving each other, including putting their financial support and time towards helping each other in various loving ways, they’re having a bad impact in two ways: building up and making racists stronger and more powerful; and not helping people who need it far more.