Heard this song whose lyrics follow, among the music in a random play list recently, while using the erg:
“Spirits In the Material World”
Song by The Police
Oh!
There is no political solution
To our troubled evolution
Have no faith in constitution
There is no bloody revolution
We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Our so-called leaders speak
With words, they try to jail ya
They subjugate the meek
But it’s the rhetoric of failure
We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Where does the answer lie?
Living from day to day
If it’s something we can’t buy
There must be another way
We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Songwriters: Gordon Matthew Sumner. For non-commercial use only.
The reason I’m sharing it is simply because I was surprised to hear that true statement (the “we are spirits” part) in a pop song by a band that (as far as I know) had no reputation for writing songs that were spiritual or protest songs or otherwise particularly meaningful.
It is true that we are spirits. Though it is easy for a person to think of himself or herself as a physical being composed entirely of atoms and molecules… we only “inhabit” our physical bodies and we depart from those physical bodies when death happens. Dying is a word for the separation of a person’s spirit from that person’s body. The body remains behind, at death, and the spirit goes elsewhere.
So… Thanks to Gordon Matthew Sumner, for a few words of “food for thought” in an otherwise not-worthy-of-fame song.
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