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about
Words was written several years ago; this track is a fresh version of the song. It is no less relevant to me than it was when I wrote it, unfortunately.
Those of us who were born into a peaceful, thriving, first-world setting cannot appreciate the desperate lives of people born into more hopeless surroundings. Around the time of writing this song, I befriended a man my age from Lebanon. As a teenager in Beirut, he told me stories of running and hiding behind dumpsters and torched cars to avoid gunfire in the streets - just to walk home from school. He was more grateful to be living in the USA than me. I was ashamed of the way I took my blessed life for granted and how disconnected I was from the pain and suffering of people I only knew about from television.
This song came from that realization. In the final analysis, I hope that my actions will have spoken louder than my words, which just aren't enough.
Here's a description of the stunning photograph: In this Friday, Jan. 24, 2014 photo, Afghan refugee girl, Gul Bibi Shamra, 3, poses for a picture, while playing with other children in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan. For more than three decades, Pakistan has been home to one of the world’s largest refugee communities: hundreds of thousands of Afghans who have fled the repeated wars and fighting their country has undergone. Since the 2002 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, some 3.8 million Afghans have returned to their home country, according to the U.N.’s refugee agency.
War is raging all around.
Shots ring out in the bloody battle.
Children weep as they’re hunkered down.
But I can’t watch this and eat; so, I change the channel.
Culturally apathetic, I was raised on the fat of the land.
I can’t imagine the shoes those people wear…
Their suffering, I can’t understand.
So I’ll send some money to the mission
And it’ll make me feel a little better, but
Words just aren’t enough.
Pour on the money – it just makes a puddle of mud.
It doesn’t work without love; it takes a whole lot of love,
Because Words just aren’t enough.
I meant to make it up to see you last night,
But I just had too many things to do.
I know this is a hard time in your life, but
Rest assured, I’ve been thinking of you.
And when you get to feel a little better
Maybe we can try and get together…the
Words just aren’t enough.
Pour on the money – it just makes a puddle of mud.
It doesn’t work without love; it takes a whole lot of love,
Because Words just aren’t enough.
I can feel so empty. Way down, deep inside.
There’s a spirit to guide me, but I have let it die.
But in the back of my mind, it’s just a matter of time,
Then I’m going to find my drive.
It’ll rise up above me & will hover around me
And I, in turn, will learn that…
Words just aren’t enough.
Pour on the money – it just makes a puddle of mud.
It doesn’t work without love; it takes a whole lot of love,
Because Words just aren’t enough.
(c) 2002 & 2020 John A. Walsh / JAWSongs (ASCAP)
credits
released May 10, 2020
Vocals, Baritone Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar & Bass: John A. Walsh
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