This is a great song and, as a dad who is often sad, it hits very close to home when I think of my kids.
The lyrics are quite emotionally charged, but also rather straightforward. This is about a person, the singer, whose father died when they were young. The father was sad when he died and, to me, this implies that he may have committed suicide. The singer has frozen his father in this place even as he has missed the singer growing up, the father has stayed the same in his mind.
As the singer grows up he sees that his father was away even when he was alive. Most likely in the depths of depression or otherwise preoccupied. The singer realizes that his father is alive in him and he was robbed of a childhood with his father, but was also blessed because of how the death of his father has shaped his life or perhaps, another interpretation may be that he was spared his father's ongoing depression.
He decides that he can't just keep his father frozen in his mind, he has to forgive his father for dying (also implying suicide) and allow him to age in his mind and not assume that his father would have always been "away" or depressed, he could've grown and changed and become more engaged. The singer has come to terms with the fact that he just doesn't know but chooses to not see his father as some sad guy who (likely?) killed himself, but he has to let that go. His father doesn't have to be a failure in his mind anymore. It's ultimately not about the singer's father, but about the singer himself and how he uses what happened to shape his present and future.
This is a great song and, as a dad who is often sad, it hits very close to home when I think of my kids.
The lyrics are quite emotionally charged, but also rather straightforward. This is about a person, the singer, whose father died when they were young. The father was sad when he died and, to me, this implies that he may have committed suicide. The singer has frozen his father in this place even as he has missed the singer growing up, the father has stayed the same in his mind.
As the singer grows up he sees that his father was away even when he was alive. Most likely in the depths of depression or otherwise preoccupied. The singer realizes that his father is alive in him and he was robbed of a childhood with his father, but was also blessed because of how the death of his father has shaped his life or perhaps, another interpretation may be that he was spared his father's ongoing depression.
He decides that he can't just keep his father frozen in his mind, he has to forgive his father for dying (also implying suicide) and allow him to age in his mind and not assume that his father would have always been "away" or depressed, he could've grown and changed and become more engaged. The singer has come to terms with the fact that he just doesn't know but chooses to not see his father as some sad guy who (likely?) killed himself, but he has to let that go. His father doesn't have to be a failure in his mind anymore. It's ultimately not about the singer's father, but about the singer himself and how he uses what happened to shape his present and future.