I’m so fascinated by the obsession we seem to have with escaping from wherever we are. When I first heard this song, I was not only taken by its slow build and beautiful melodies, but by the amount of songs I’ve heard with this title. “Fallin'” to me is ever present and consistently something that I think about. I’m not sure why, but I’m even more fascinated by the club culture that breeds chaos in a controlled setting. Yes, I’m talking about orchestrated chaos. But I’ve talked about that idea far too much — what I’m interested in is the desire to fall out of sync with the present. To escape the moment. I’m completely taken by the cliche that we sometimes give the idea of remaining present and how it’s almost cool to escape; to fall into another world. We see this every single day: our constant living for the weekend mentality, our overworked brains, our need to obliterate our bodies with alcohol and drug consumption.
I thought about this especially tonight as I attended a show by myself, and found myself judging the people in front of me for being completely drunk. I don’t typically judge people for their drinking behaviors, but what I was more fascinated by was how throughout the entirety of the show, each person had managed to buy at least one drink for another person — nobody had bought their own drinks all night. It was kind of beautiful, but then it got me thinking: is it our mission to get everybody on the same level as us, in a situation like that? If that’s the case, alcohol does seem like the easiest way to get there.
This isn’t to say that I don’t take part in my fair share of escapism. We all do, I think, because it’s part of our nature. Because we understand the banalities of everyday life and sometimes, that makes us sad. But why not embrace that sadness for a moment and let it get into your soul — not your brain. Let it fuel you.
This isn’t about discouraging you from traveling to other lands. It’s not an attempt to dampen your exploring heart. It’s about embracing whatever it is you decide and allowing yourself to stand still in whatever transition you make. If you choose to fall, let it be at your own discretion. And if you need a song to listen to while falling, let it be this one.