Pink Floyd
Comfortably Numb
Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?
Come on, now.
I hear you're feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain,
Get you on your feet again.
Relax.
I need some information first.
Just the basic facts,
Can you show me where it hurts?
There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're sayin'.
When I was a child I had a fever.
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I got that feeling once again.
I can't explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.
Ok.
Just a little pinprick.
There'll be no more ...Aaaaaahhhhh!
But you may feel a little sick.
Can you stand up?
I do believe it's working. Good.
That'll keep you going for the show.
Come on it's time to go.
There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're sayin'.
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.
Okay so, from everything I read this 1979 song is glorifying Heroin. And I have to admit that when I was younger the song gave me the heeby jeebies with that creepy voice saying "Hello, is anybody in there" I never was a big fan of Pink Floyd. I think I saw The Wall in High School and came to the conclusion that those guys were "out there." But Tod rented a DVD of a concert by an older balding, pot-bellied David Gilmore He sang this song and I wept. For the first time I really paid attention to the lyrics, and sure it could be about drugs getting you through a "show" or it could be about your drug of choice getting you through life, (money, food, shopping, entertainment, anti-depressants, a beautiful showcase home, a enviable career, wine in the afternoon) whatever it is that inoculates you from reality. Whatever makes you numb.
And then there is the awareness, that "this isn't how I am" Acknowledging that who I have become is like the little child with a fever who felt distorted (hands felt like two balloons).
And then this from childhood-
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.
See and that is where the tears come,I cry for every child who caught a glimpse of truth and didn't pursue it. Truth is fleeting, it is elusive, it wants to be saught out, discovered. But there is always a choice to make. You can go with the smooth talking medicine man who can mask your pain, distort reality to your liking, or you can pursue that which disappears around the corner. And in that disappearance is the unspoken, "come this way, follow me." You can choose to do so, or you can just become comfortably numb.
Forgive me Father, for I have become comfortably numb.
