Life Is Suffering

I read a lot about Terrible things that people have done to each other You just cannot Even imagine it, it's so awful! So you don't wanna be someone like that Now do you have a reason to be? Yes, you have lots of reasons to be! God, there's reasons to be resentful about your existence Everyone you know is gonna die You too! And there's gonna be a fair bit of pain along the way And lots of it's gonna be unfair It's like, yeah! No wonder you're resentful It's like act it out, see what happens You make everything you're complaining about Infinitely worse! There's this idea that hell is a bottomless pit And that's because no matter how bad it is Some stupid son of a bitch like you could Figure out a way to make it a lot worse! That's what life is like It's suffering! That's what the religious people have always said Life is suffering (Life is life is suffering) Yes! (Watcha gonna do about it?) Life is suffering (Life is life is suffering) Yes! (Watcha gonna do about it?) What do you do in the face of that suffering? Try to reduce it! Start with yourself What good are you? Get yourself together for Christ sakes! So that When your father dies, you're not whining away in the corner And you can help plan the funeral And you can stand up solidly So that people can rely on you That's better, don't be a damn victim Course, you're a victim! Jesus, obviously! Put yourself together You know how to do that You know what's wrong with you If you admit it You know there's a few things you could like polish up a little bit That you might even be able to manage In your insufficient present condition So you might shine yourself off a little bit And then your eyes will be a little more open Then you can shine yourself up a little bit more And then maybe you could bring your family together Instead of having them be the hateful, spiteful, neurotic In-fighting bastards you're doomed to spend Christmas with Life is suffering (Life is life is suffering) Yes! (Watcha gonna do about it?) Life is suffering (Life is life is suffering) Yes! (Watcha gonna do about it?) So, then you fix yourself up a little bit Kind of humbly because you know, God You're a fixer-upper if there ever was one And then you gotta figure out how To make peace with your idiot brother And probably not because he's just as dumb as you So that how the hell are you gonna manage that? So then maybe you get somewhere that way And your family starts functioning, and you find out That kind of relieved a little bit of suffering Although it reduced the opportunities for spiteful revenge And that's kind of a pain in the neck And so, when you get your family together a little bit And you're a little clued in then, at least a bit because You've done something difficult that's actually difficult You're a little wiser, so then maybe you could Put a tentative finger out beyond the family And try to change some little thing without wrecking it Our society is complex And we teach our students that they can just fix it It's like go fix the military helicopter And see how far you get with that You're like a chimp with a wrench, whack! "Oh look, it's better!" It's like no! It's not better! Things are complicated and to fix things is really hard And you have to be like a golden tool to fix things And you're not! And that's the other message of the West How do you overcome the suffering of life? Just be a better person Life is suffering (Life is life is suffering) Yes! (Watcha gonna do about it?) Life is suffering (Life is life is suffering) Yes! (Watcha gonna do about it?) Life is suffering (Life is life is suffering) Yes! (Watcha gonna do about it?) Life is suffering (Life is life is suffering) Yes! (Watcha gonna do about it?) That's how you do it Well, that's hard It takes responsibility And I think, you know, if you said to someone Do you wanna have a meaningful life? Everything you do matters That's the definition of a meaningful life But everything you do matters! You gonna have to carry that with you Or do you want to just forget about the whole meaning thing and Then you don't have any responsibility because Who the hell cares and you can wander through life Doing whatever you want, gratifying impulsive desires For however useful that's going to be And you're stuck in meaningless but you don't have any responsibility Which one do you want? Well, ask yourself Which one are you pursuing? And you'll find very rapidly that it isn't The majority of your soul that's pursuing the whole meaning thing Because look what you have to do to do that You have to take on the fact that life is suffering You have to put yourself together In the face of that Well, that's hard! Christ was made 'cause people couldn't even do it I'm stunned every day when I go outside and it isn't a riot With everything burning Watcha gonna do about it? Life is, life is suffering Watcha gonna do about it?