Light Never Dies

The world is in a balance—in both positive and negative ways. Yet, sometimes it does not seem as if. The negativity penetrates the happiness we try to fulfil in ourselves. At times, hardships seem impossible to overcome. Bleakness. Darkness. Blackness. It’s all consuming. Or that’s what we engrain in ourselves.

The difficultly of taking a step backwards to breathe from our situation increasingly grows with time. We are blindfolded. We cannot seek the help necessary. We lose rational frame of mind that it’s more than one of us in every situation.

Hope for the Day, a non-profit organization, was created to restore our faded hope, our wretched lives. A life ring is thrown out to sea. In over our heads, swallowing what we cannot digest, know we can be uplifted from the weight dragging us under.

More than one of us has felt this way. It’s in stories, narratives, lyrics, books, where we recognize we are not alone. Never alone.

Averting Gaze

Two topics are avoided, touched but rarely spoken about. The room is silent without knowing how to respond to the darker, realistic, and true shades of life. But they need to be addressed. No matter how traumatizing the event, society sweeps rape and suicide under the carpet. It’s not a subject anyone wants to approach. It takes caution and sensitivity to broach such heavy issues.

But in music, topics of such are relevant. Music as we know is it, is a coping method. For some it is writing, others composing, as for the listener it gives insight and comfort knowing they are not the only one reliving with the relentless, horrid memories.

Music has an effect that touches people, moves people and creates awareness.

The Fray does just that in their song “How to Save a Life”. I realize this is a mainstream song, but it feels necessary to bring into light. The song was inspired by an experience of the lead singer, Isaac Slade, when he went as a mentor to a camp to help troubled teens.

He didn’t know how to help. The lyrics bluntly state that:

And I would have stayed up with you all night

Had I known how to save a life

I know you want to say that was just one person. But one person lost their life. To be honest, not knowing how to help occurs more than we’d like to believe. Like the rest of society, we don’t want to deal with confrontation of someone dying or their thought of killing themselves. It’s just normal. We say it’ll pass, but for those with suicidal thoughts, does it?

With no one helping them, it looks as if no one cares. If someone says they’re your friend, they need to help you through everything even if that means staying up ‘til 2am.

The chorus relays that because you didn’t help your friend, guilt is place upon yourself. Just as with the main character, Clay, in Jay Asher’s work of TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY.

Abbey Marshall, a fellow classmate of mine, wrote her own review of the book through her own blog:http://abbeymarshall.wordpress.com/2013/10/13/th1rteen-r3asons-why-you-should-read-this-book/. This is phenomenally written and is strait to the point. It highlights upon teen suicide and realistic motive behind it.

However, this song does not alone bring awareness to suicide of any age, but also focuses on the contributing factors.
 

Lay down a list of what is wrong

The things you've told him all along

With this particular line, its saying that you are repeating the information someone has already given you. It’s not, in anyway, helping them solve their problems or lifting the weight off your shoulders.

Factors of suicide could be anything including, stress, drug addiction, rape, social issues, or relationships. The list could go on and on. Unless you ask, you never know how someone is being affected by your words, how you act, or what you write.

In Sonia Rayka’s blog, One in Three, she depicts the seriousness of rape. Women are taught to avoid a situation and think about how they dress, walk in groups of two or more. But then why are men not taught and enforced that rape should not be encouraged. To read more:http://soniarayka.wordpress.com/2013/09/22/one-in-three/

Anything could be a factor, but frankly, do any of us truly know how to handle a situation, if it were to arise? Is the blame on us, or is it on society because they do not want to truly admit to what hides in the shadows and cobwebbed corners of reality?

Brave

“Among 12- to 17-year-olds, 47 percent of girls and 34 percent of boys report having been bullied either face-to-face or online, according to a survey by Mintel, a market research firm,” the New York time states in a recent article.

And it’s true. I know it. You know it. But what do we do about bullying? Most of us are bystanders watching the events unfold, if that is to mean watching statuses posted on line, verbal or physical.

But bullying is not just relevant in a middle school or high school setting. Become aware that bullying happens in every school, at every age. The idea is not to brush off the situation. Now after being the victim, perspective  change.

Two years. Two consecutive years.  By two different people.

At the naïve age of 8, I didn’t know. I didn’t push away the fact that I was being threatened, but I evaded questioning why it was happening.

I avoided him. Yet it was constant. I couldn’t get away. The words were thrown at me in our small groups. But I didn’t want to tattle. I didn’t want to find trouble, if that meant I dealt with the threats of being killed, then so be it.

It was in the corner of the classroom that I remember him stating, “I’m going to kill you. I’ll take a knife and slit your throat.” Or another common one; “I have a gun. I’m going to find you and shoot you.”

As an eight-year-old I didn’t know how to react. I knew it wasn’t normal. Kids in my small group just watched. Their mouths silence. And I was alone. Not a word was ever spoken about the reoccurring event.

With the third-grade rolling around the following year, to say the least, I was relived. Until I was targeted again.

Another student decided it was ok to, again, verbally abuse. Yet this time instead of just in the classroom, it was at recess too. I couldn’t escape. I tried to continue playing with my friends, but it wouldn’t always work like that. He began to snag my friends form underneath me, promising them that he was better, saying that I didn’t need friends. And that they were not allowed to talk to me anymore.

The two years were rough. But looking back these events created who I am. I’ve become more aware of the circumstances around me. And with October here, it’s time to advocate for Anti-Bully Awareness Month.

It is never ok to sit back and watch the bullying happen. That makes a situation ten times worse. It makes you feel like you are stuck in the same position. There are programs dedicated toward the prevention of bullies. And even in music you can find liberating messages.

For Sara Bareilles, her song “Brave” is leaving in its wake a message to take a stand and be who you are.

“It’s acknowledging our own internal silence,” Bareilles said, “What are we not speaking out loud because we are afraid of what that might expose us to, if that is judgment, criticism or vulnerability?”

This song is for encouragement and motivation to stand up for ourselves, mostly, but for others as well. Because you are recognizing that something is wrong, or you’re not acting yourself, it gives you power to change. Rise above the chamber that’s confining you, and breaking the chains that bind you in darkness.

“Letting the light in is a metaphor to the truth,” Bareilles said. “It is such a beautiful, broad concept.”

 

You don’t have to look far for comfort. Standing up is a way to grow into your own skin. It teaches fearlessness and courageousness.

If a friend is not someone you can lean on, there are people who have been in your shoes. No matter what you believe. Someone is experiencing pain, just as you are.

 

And I find it easiest to find meaning within lyrics, if that maybe on the radio, on the internet, or elsewhere. You can always find lyrics that are connectable to describe you situation. Always.

 

To read Anti-Bullying from The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/business/media/the-fight-against-bullying-in-schools-expands-to-store-shelves.html

To listen to Sara Bareilles “Track-by-Track” Commentary of Brave:

http://www.vh1.com/video/interview/sara-bareilles/937407/brave-track-by-track.jhtml