Knocking on Heaven's Door
I loved this song the moment I heard for the first time as a kid. My parents had albums that they would always want to play for me but I gravitated to just a few of them because I had an imagination that wanted darker images. I always believed that this song was talking about death. About wanting to enter the after life with such urgency that someone would be knocking on the door to be let in. I now see how wrong I was in that interpretation. After the few things that have occurred in my life recently, I am suddenly awake. I read this song to mean that it is about striving for a better world. Searching for heaven on earth. Aspiring Utopia. Now, I understand that Utopia is paradoxically impossible because of the many humans that inhabit earth and not all of them have the same Heaven in mind. I mean, even a few people living in a house together don't have the same idea of "household", let alone Heaven. But the song seems to be talking more about a peaceful aspiration. About how hard it is to love instead of hate, but it's still the better choice. About how easy it is to pull a trigger, but how difficult it is to save the life of someone injured by a bullet. And yet, there is a yearning to take the more difficult path. There is an air of sadness but yet it is a hopeful message. I'm loving this song right now just a little more than I already did.