God, Give Us Love in the Time that We Have

Iron & Wine- On Your Wings
God, there is gold hidden deep in the ground
God, there’s a hangman that wants to come around

How we rise when we’re born
like the ravens in the corn
on their wings, on our knees
crawling careless from the sea

God, give us love in the time that we have

God, there are guns growing out of our bones
God, every road takes us farther from home

All these men that you made
how we wither in the shade
of your trees, on your wings
we are carried to the sea

God, give us love in the time that we have

Last year, Iron & Wine was my band of the week for like 15 weeks straight. From September to December, the only bands I returned to and returned to are Sufjan Stevens, Antony and the Johnsons, and Iron & Wine. This song has been the song stuck in my head countless times. The simple beauty of the lyrics just captivates me; "God, give us love in the time that we have." These ten words manage to communicate three of the deepest, most resonating themes in humanity. Sam Beam is (a)Pleading with God, (b) yearning for Love, and (c) Recognizing his own mortality and the essential mortal nature of man. He also manages to speak to the idea of home and leaving it, and the idea that war is such a prevalent part of humanity that it has become part of the essence of humanity, and in just two more lines: "God, there are guns growing out of our bones. God, every road takes us farther from home." The simple Southern Gothic sound of this lyric, Beam's whiskey soaked gravelly voice, and the coupling of leaving home and war evoke a Civil War soldier marching down a dusty trail from his home in Georgia to go fight his cousins. These actions may not describe me, but the song about them resonates with me. Plus, Sam Beam has maybe the most baller beard of a champion in all of music. (See Above)