Love Blocked

So I've been having some trouble getting to this post for what is now last week...opps! Not due of lack of ideas because there are a number that are floating around in my head, like taking apart Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint as mentioned in class or looking into the different types of love. But those ideas just haven't actually seemed to spark my fingers to move to the keys...mayhap another week.

So I've settled on looking at a song (an idea which I totally stole from Sidd's blog...sorry and at the same time thanks hun!) that means something to me in terms of love. I realize that a song is not truly a poem but as we discussed at the start of the course a number of us considered song lyrics to be pretty darn close to being a poem in terms of the emotions conveyed.

The song that I selected is written and performed by Scott Stapp, the former lead singer for Creed, and performed for a soundtrack (The Passion of the Christ). It is called Relearn Love:
and if anyone is interested in hearing the song, then just go to: http://www.scottstapp.com/ and it is right on the main page. The song is truly touching and hopefully inspires someone as it did me:

On a dark and lonely highway
I need the SON to raise my head.
I come before you…I am naked...
The man I am now must be shed.
I’ve weathered storms and I am broken.
My beaten heart is in your hands...
What I really need is shelter and a chance

To relearn love...
Teach me all over…all over...
To relearn love...
Show me again...
So I can relearn love...

The Comfort of your arms around me...
Your tender hands caress my head
I lay beside you I m not worthy
This jaded mans not who I am
I’ve touched the flame and I’ve been burned
All I need is a second chance
Give me eyes of a child
And teach this man…To relearn love

Teach me all over…all over
To relearn love…show me again
To relearn love…teach me all over…all over
To relearn love…show me again
So I can relearn love

I was selfish…but you still loved me
You gave the greatest gift of all and it set me free
When time means nothing and your world is standing still
Listen world he’s calling when you feel me drop and kneel
Can you feel it?
Just remember, oh oh remember...
To relearn love

Relearn my love
Show me, show me
To relearn my love
Teach me now…now
Relearn my love
To relearn, relearn my love
So I can relearn love...

So on the surface the song is obviously about the love of Christ and its redeeming powers for someone that has fallen from grace. Well obvious to anyone that is of the Christian faith at least and to anyone that can make the connection between the song and the soundtrack that it is produced for. Plus I think the capitalization of the word SON might be a tell-tale sign. But at any rate, I will not be talking about those parallels though and will focus more on human love between a man and another human being.

In the first verse where Stapp sings: "I come before you…I am naked.../The man I am now must be shed./I’ve weathered storms and I am broken./My beaten heart is in your hands..." I think that he is talking about entering into a new relationship with someone. We are all very vulnerable, naked if you will, when starting a new love affair and we're placing our heart in the hands of our new partner to do what they will. Any past love relationship would be considered a storm that has been endured because if it has now ended then there was some reason or another that the couple parted ways and often one person is broken.

The second verse speaks about the persona having: "touched the flame and I’ve been burned". I think that the flame being referred to is the hottest point of being in love. That high point where one's flesh feels like it could be seared off due to the heat being emitted by the emotions and passion being felt. The burning from this flame comes from the idea that the love is no longer being returned or has ended for good. The persona asks for the "eyes of a child" which shows that he wants to return to innocence. Children see things more clearly than most adults because they are not as prejudice, biased or have been hurt by love as adults have.

Finally I think the whole idea of relearning love is both a novel and a brilliant idea! It is novel in the way that most of us wouldn't think that love is one of those things that can be learned at all. Generally in order to learn something it would have to be a skill or a feat of some kind, but love doesn't appear to be either of those things. However if you truly think about it, then to love someone well is really a skill that requires practice and the opportunity to change and grow.

Also most of us could stand to relearn how to love, because there has been some action, or dialogue that has been done while in love that wasn't as desirable as it could be. We treated our love badly and then in turn felt bad for our brutish behaviour. But what if we relearned how to love and negated that bad feeling on both sides? Brilliant n'est pas?!

sv