To be honest, that's all I'll ever truly see the meaning of the song to be too, since as you said, it's the actual meaning. There will never be another true meaning, since we now know exactly what it was based off of. When I hear this song, I'll always think of the dying boy who felt he disappointed his father. Now that I know the real story, it's too ingrained in my head to think otherwise.
I guess the best way to say what I'm trying to convey is that, you can know the true meaning, accept it, and acknowledge that the meaning of the song is what Doug explained. You can't try to say it's something else when you know the real reasoning. That is just ignorance if you try to deny what the songwriter was saying.
What you CAN do however, is 'imagine' the song and its lyrics in a different situation. You know it's not the real meaning ,and you'll never try to say that it is, but you can see how it plays out in a different scenario. Just to try it out. It's like when you hear the song for the first few times, BEFORE you know the real meaning. You imagine what the story could possibly be, what scenario could play out, etc. If Doug never explained to us what the real meaning was, we'd all still be doing this very thing. Even though the true story is out there and official, that doesn't mean you can't be curious and see how the song would fit in a different scenario.
I'll be the first to admit that my initial comment on here about the song being 'self explanatory' was jumping the gun quite a bit. It was before I knew the real meaning, and it was one possible tangent that I felt the song could go on. Just because I know Doug's story now, though, doesn't mean I can't brainstorm how the song would go in a different scenario. I guess it's the amateur machinima film maker in me, thinking of different ways a song can be interpreted. I tend to imagine songs being used in different situations and seeing if there's a way I can make it work believably.
I apologize to anyone who felt I was trying to push my interpretation as the real one, or that I was putting down Doug's real reason. All I was intending was to stretch the imagination and pretend how it could work in other scenarios. No disrespect intended whatsoever. :)
To be honest, that's all I'll ever truly see the meaning of the song to be too, since as you said, it's the actual meaning. There will never be another true meaning, since we now know exactly what it was based off of. When I hear this song, I'll always think of the dying boy who felt he disappointed his father. Now that I know the real story, it's too ingrained in my head to think otherwise.
I guess the best way to say what I'm trying to convey is that, you can know the true meaning, accept it, and acknowledge that the meaning of the song is what Doug explained. You can't try to say it's something else when you know the real reasoning. That is just ignorance if you try to deny what the songwriter was saying.
What you CAN do however, is 'imagine' the song and its lyrics in a different situation. You know it's not the real meaning ,and you'll never try to say that it is, but you can see how it plays out in a different scenario. Just to try it out. It's like when you hear the song for the first few times, BEFORE you know the real meaning. You imagine what the story could possibly be, what scenario could play out, etc. If Doug never explained to us what the real meaning was, we'd all still be doing this very thing. Even though the true story is out there and official, that doesn't mean you can't be curious and see how the song would fit in a different scenario.
I'll be the first to admit that my initial comment on here about the song being 'self explanatory' was jumping the gun quite a bit. It was before I knew the real meaning, and it was one possible tangent that I felt the song could go on. Just because I know Doug's story now, though, doesn't mean I can't brainstorm how the song would go in a different scenario. I guess it's the amateur machinima film maker in me, thinking of different ways a song can be interpreted. I tend to imagine songs being used in different situations and seeing if there's a way I can make it work believably.
I apologize to anyone who felt I was trying to push my interpretation as the real one, or that I was putting down Doug's real reason. All I was intending was to stretch the imagination and pretend how it could work in other scenarios. No disrespect intended whatsoever. :)