Blue Spotted Tail – Fleet Foxes

At first, the very beginning of the song sounded like a child staring at the stars and asking the most basic, pure, and awe-fueled of questions — why? Why, why are they there? To look at the universe around us with the mind of a child… it’s almost like a more pure form of knowing. Sometimes, we are so convinced that we know exactly what is going on that we forget to look around and really examine all that is. I mean, seriously… like, why? Why are there stars in the sky? Why are we circling around the Sun? Why are we here? I… don’t know if I can put it into words, I just imagine a child staring at all that is with wonder, and looking up to their mom or dad and asking… why? And who could know, who could give an answer? That’s the wonder, that’s the mystery. I find God in that space, I find God in the why’s that cannot be answered. Not God as an answer, but God as an adjective in that space of absolute openness and awe that remains after that question. God lies in that emptiness of pure awareness and wonder, when the question cannot be answered.

And then… the next stanza. Why is life made, only for it to end? Why then do I do all this waiting? Fated to pretend — in fear. Why? Then, I began to imagine us as the stars in the sky, the stanzas relating to each other. We each have the potential to shine like those stars in the sky, before the oblivion of pitch that surrounds swallows us back up. Then, this contrast between the awareness that life is temporary/that there is nothing to hold us back from being who we really are, shining like those stars in the night sky, with us still yet, for some reason, waiting in fear. Why?

It’s like he stares at those stars, the wonder of all creation, and knows he has it in himself to be expressed, yet the fear holds him back… and he wonders, “why?” I think the greatest of strength isn’t in not being afraid, but in being afraid and doing it anyway. Bravery can coexist with fear. Maybe bravery can only exist with fear, testament to the strength of the human will and heart that overrides instinct for something higher.

Idk. This song is just absolutely beautiful please give it a listen

Why in the night sky are the lights hung?
Why is the Earth moving ’round the sun?
Floating in the vacuum with no purpose, not a one
Why in the night sky are the lights hung? Oh

Why is life made only for to end?
Why do I do all this waiting then?
Why this frightened part of me that’s fated to pretend?
Why is life made only for to end? Oh

In the city only for a while
Here to face the fortune and the bile
I heard you on the radio, I couldn’t help but smile
In the city only for a while, oh

Why in the night sky are the lights hung?
Why is the Earth moving ’round the sun?
Floating in the vacuum with no purpose, not a one
Why in the night sky are the lights hung? Oh