Flotsam Commentary

Introduction:

This is the lyric sheet and commentary to my album Flotsam, which can be found on any streaming service. The titles of the songs are also links to Youtube, where you can hear the songs for free.

Flotsam

Recurrence

There is nothing here for us to save,

Suffering from the cradle to the grave.

Lonelier than a harsh reality:

To be the accessory to a fantasy.

We never felt anything better.

***** * *****

The recurrence need not be eternal. The wheel turns because of its momentum. Momentum can be arrested, the cycle broken, new and better machines constructed to navigate “fate”. Of course, the new machine will have its own revolutions...

Sludge

It was so cold in the void,

So I took my chances with you;

But it seems you could not avoid

Breaking my heart in two.

I will not pretend

I want it to mend.

So now I wander the waste

Cluttered with broken dreams.

Through the sludge I make haste

Toward where the river gleams.

Mirror of my soul,

You're just an empty (w)hole...

***** * *****

Morality is indeed relative. Were it absolute we would always necessarily be in contravention of it. We are, after all, animals; but we are animals with the unique ability to define morality in relation to our mutual needs. This elasticity is what makes morality useful. We come to understand what things are good and evil by understanding, over the course of time, what kinds of effects we have on one another, whether or not they are beneficial or detrimental. So morality changes, and we change with it... and morality changes... and we change with it...

This growth is not a bad thing. The greatest hindrance to growth lies in two approaches to morality:

1.)The supposition that it is fixed and absolute.

2.)The supposition that because it is not fixed and absolute, anything goes.

Anything does not go. Our development of moral character as a species is dependent upon each of us, as individuals, working to discover what does go and going with that.

Crosses

He embraced the never,

Forever to scream...

Has he earned the right

To sleep forever

And never to dream?

He has spurned the light.

If only to sever

His link to the dream,

He sheltered the night.

Lonely endeavor,

Ominous scream...

He sweltered the blight.

***** * *****

People ultimately cooperate out of mutual self-interest. This holds true no matter how they feel about one another. Those whose self-interest is rarely served by others are therefore at a disadvantage in society. Even if they are competent to help others they cannot hope to receive a return on what they offer. They can go much, if not all, of their lives giving of themselves and be completely depleted and dilapidated at the end, with nothing to show for their effort but a broken body and heart. Knowing then, that we always act and react out of mutual self-interest, such an individual would do well to develop solitary practices consistent with their own needs rather than collective practices aimed at humanitarian ends. It is the fault of society if by not accounting for or working to accommodate such individuals, they find such individuals opt out of contributing to society.

Such individuals are rare, and without their contributions society tends to spiral into dereliction.

However, such an individual may still yet decide to contribute, to redeem dysfunctional elements of society for which the majority is unwilling to sacrifice its own comfort. Such is the archetypical relevance of the myth of the dying god, of which Jesus of Nazareth is the most popular example.

Should the rabble ever finally ask itself: Why have we allowed this poor fellow to be crucified rather than saving him?—then, and only then, will they discover how to avoid the emotional craving for the illusion of redemption.

Changing World

Love had me dying in your arms.

I broke myself falling for your charms,

So you held me tight but had to let me go

And now I wander time that kills me slow, so slow.

There's something wrong with me

But I concede it's too late

To stoke a fire inside

Or find a place to hide.

We're just vulnerable to a changing world.

***** * *****

There is an abyss that stretches between what we are and what we aspire to be. A leap of faith is required to cross it. Some of us take the leap and plummet to the depths. Our journey is not over. Our spirit may be damaged from the fall, but it yet struggles on, determined to scale the heights or die trying. This song is an echo from that abyss.

Are you struggling? Has the darkness pulled you in and given you a voice, a tortured wail? You are but crying out for eternity, losing your voice in a chorus of universal splendor. You just don't know it yet. The world is changing. You will change with it. The darkness is but the shadow cast by the cocoon as it falls away. Soon you will fly in the sunlight... but for now, listen to the echo, and know the suffering that made you strong.

Flotsam

Life is a river

whose currents

are too strong to navigate.

I am merely flotsam

floating aimlessly

toward some unknown fate.

If we all died what would be left?

Would we finally rest in peace?

Ghosts of the past

Fade away too fast,

Leaving the living to haunt this plane.

All these lonely souls

Playing out their roles

In a deception they can't maintain.

Never to feel anything again...

I don't know why it's considered

Such a sin to give in

To the immanent despair

That follows the realization

That life just isn't fair.

But thank you for being there.

***** * *****

The only certain pleasure I have ever experienced in life lie in those idle moments when I have my thoughts to myself. It is not the highest pleasure, I admit, but it is a certain pleasure. No matter how tumultuous my urges and desires may become, the examination of my thoughts has become a tranquilizing process, a sanctuary. This is where I tend to hide when things go bad, as they often seem to do. Perhaps if I could transpose that point of view over kinetic as well as static moments, I could succeed in navigating life. For then all life, all events, would be pleasure.

Is this possible? Mustn't some events remain tragic and affect us dramatically, even traumatize us, else we react ineffectively toward them?

Whether we watch the waves roll from the safety of the shore, or roll with them to risk drowning in the unfathomed depths of the sea, we never stop being and becoming our selves.

Nil Admirari

Turn our eyes to the heavens

Just to be blinded by the light.

Better to burn up in the flame

Than to stay lost in endless night.

This vast abyss between us

Cannot be empathized away

Lest it be filled with suffering

Until our dying day...

Consoling or controlling?

Is this our fear of the unknown?

There is no one, there is nothing

But this dark void we have been shown.

Mirror, mirror of the soul,

The wanderer and his shadow.

The wanderer,

Unperturbed,

Casts a shadow;

Makes his own way...

***** * *****

He wanders off alone. Into what fantasy is he trying to escape? From what is he running? Is he perhaps escaping... into reality?

© 2021 C. Rommial Butler

Front cover: “Aerial View of Brown Wooden Boat On River” by Richard Pantling

All instrumentation by C. Rommial Butler except:

Guitar on Sludge by Eric Shaffer

Guitar on Changing World by Jon Hacker