Many people listen to songs for uplifting melodies and dance-inspiring beats. But those words floating around hitting notes and threading through the song are just as full of importance as the music and beats to which they are set.
"Stop This Train," a song from John Mayer's Continuum,is a song that speaks to a common theme in his songs: that messy place between adolescence and adulthood.
In "Stop This Train," Mayer's words echo the feelings of so many twenty-somethings. We're starting to build new lives, leave old one's behind, lose people, and become people. And in the middle of that "train ride" we feel like we're moving too fast, like we're not ready for the challenges ahead. We want someone to stop the careening speed of the this train ride that is life.
As adulthood looms, so does the mortality of our parents. Mayer intones, "Don't want to see my parents go." And while no one ever does, it is when we become adults ourselves that we begin to see the age in those that have shaped our lives. We see the death of our grandparents and realize we are a "generation away from fighting life out on my own." And we are scared because our parents for so many of us have been the safety net into which we fall. We begin to realize that safety net will not always be there.
We don't know how to be adults yet, because Adulthood 101 is not a class we can take. "I'm only good at being young." And in that, we are afraid of what we do not know.
There are days we are lulled into false calm.
"Once in a while when it's good"
"It'll feel like it should"
"And they're all still around"
"And you're still safe and sound."
And all seems right with the world and you think you can face this thing called adulthood. But, you soon realize that despite that comfort-you are an adult and are once again on your own.
"And you don't miss a thing"
"'til you cry when you're driving away in the dark."
And this overwhelming feeling can make adulthood feel like a hopeless venture as we realize no one can really stop this train or even pause it. And, even though it's hard and scary, it's okay, because we're on a learning curve, figuring out how to be this adult.
John Mayer's "Stop This Train" is a great song for those of us straddling that new world, trying to figure out not necessarily who we are, but how to be who we are.
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