While driving this morning, I heard a song that sparked some thoughts. It was a little sad but well done. From the few discussions I've had about music, I've come to understand that there are at least two types of people who listen to music: those who listen to the music and those who listen to the lyrics. I am one of the latter. That doesn't mean that I can't enjoy songs without lyrics, but generally, the music has to be much more expressive, and I don't often find music of that quality.

My point is that this song had a small section of wonderfully meaningful lyrics, which went like this...

"I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend/You could cut ties with all the lies, that you've been living in/And if you don't want to see me again, I would understand"

(Jumper by Third Eye Blind)

I think the song is musically pleasing as well, but those lines are what I wanted to write about. They touch upon something I've been thinking about recently. Even though imagining a situation like this is depressing, take a moment and imagine that someone you know is at the point where they wanted to "cash in all the chips and leave the casino." It is not a pleasant idea, but it is a real one that deserves thought.

I wish I knew of all the causes that drive people to that point and what could be done to fix such problems. To know every situation would be impossible, for obvious reasons. There are too many people and too many situations. But it isn't impossible to learn the root causes for these situations; they are pretty basic. Feelings of worthlessness, sadness, and loneliness - everybody feels them at some time or another. To put it simply, suicide occurs when these basic feelings are enhanced to some unmanageable level. At that point, people decide not to go on.

It's easy to imagine that these feelings are everywhere. Look at the society (U.S., that is) in which we live: (1) massive consumerism and competition, (2) parents working so much that they don't spend 'quality' time with their children, and (3) the disempowering of the 'little guy' factory worker. All of these things contribute to these feelings, as well as others. It becomes easy to see why a song such as Jumper can be chillingly appropriate for our times.

First, consumerism and competitiveness are massive problems, in my opinion. Take the competitiveness: the spin society puts on it is that in order to win, there must be a loser. This is not a truth, yet it has been made "true" in our society, at least at corporate levels. Corporations do not 'help' each other out when one of them is having a hard time. A business does not support a competitor who is losing profits and firing employees to save costs.

This competition creates brutal 'pit bull' tactics, with the idea that 'there can be only one.' It is horrible and destroys unity rather than supporting it. You will find that there is more loneliness in a world like this. I will leave the issue of consumerism for a later time when my thoughts are more coherent about it.

Second, kids and parents don't spend quality time together. I think any parent who cares for their children will understand this issue. People wonder why there are music groups such as Marilyn Manson, Metallica, Megadeth. (There are others whose names don't begin with 'M'; I just can't think of them.) These groups give the kids a sense of release for their feelings of loneliness, for the loss of meaning within issues facing the world, for their feelings that they are trapped and their lives pointless. I won't suggest listening to the music, but the lyrics are posted on many pages all over the web. It is interesting to read them.

Children who 'grow' without the proper care necessary for 'maturing' become very unbalanced. Look at the shootings in schools, the violence and crime in the cities, the drug problems. All of them are indications of a lack of something vital to our well-being as humans. Some people think that 'sins' (i.e. greed, lust, envy) are inherent in our nature as humans. While it might be true that we all have those 'seeds' inside of us, any seed requires a certain type of soil to grow. This lack of contact, warm, human contact between parents and their children, is exactly such soil.

This brings me to that little factory worker. Here we have 'David and Goliath,' but this outcome is nowhere near as good. People feel so removed from the decision-makers that they lose their feeling of personal power and worth. This is embodied in the classic, 'I'm just one person...' line, the epitome of a sense of worthlessness and lack of power. Do we wonder why the '9-to-5er' shuffles around at work? Not at all. How does one find the desire to live when one can't change one's own life?

The reality is that those feelings are around us all the time. They don't create the warmest, most productive atmosphere, and that is one of our problems. In thinking about it, it strikes me that warmth - heat - is necessary for growth.

My guess is that parallel to the way physical heat is required for physical life, spiritual warmth is also necessary for a spiritually healthy life. Without it the soul shrivels, withers, and keeps on as best it can. Until one day it catches itself in a very bad place, and all it can hope for is someone to say, "I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend..."