What Sarah Said

For quite a while now, Death Cab for Cutie have been my favourite band, and no other such band has been able to take that title away from them. Not only is it the beauty of the music, but also the depth and meaning to their lyrics. I have a great many memories associated with their music, not only some of the best but some of the worse.

When I lay in hospital one night, alone, scared, in pain and totally unable to sleep. I grabbed my iPod off the table beside my bed, and the first song that happened to play was What Sarah Said by Death Cab for Cutie. For those who do not know of this song, it is about someone in hospital visiting someone who is I suspect dying, and then recalling something a girl named Sarah had told them, “Love is watching someone die”. Because in the end, to be strong enough to smile at someone, to be there for them even though you know they are going to leave you, even if it is through no fault of there own, is a hard thing to do. To stand by a watch someone you love die, takes a great amount of strength.

However, it is the last line of the song, that plays during an instrumental section at the end, that brought me to tears on that hospital bed, that made me think of all those around me and what I stood to lose if I didn’t win this battle:

So who’s going to watch you die?

Because in the end who really loves you enough to be there, to stand by you right til the end.

And it came to me then
That every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU
That reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself
That I’d already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD
Took you a little farther away from me
Away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines
In a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend
On a faulty camera in our minds
But I knew that you were a truth
I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground
As the TV entertained itself

‘Cause there’s no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous paces bracing for bad news
Then the nurse comes around and everyone lifts their head
But I’m thinking of what Sarah said
That love is watching someone die

So who’s going to watch you die
So who’s going to watch you die
So who’s going to watch you die

You can see the music video here (scroll down to the “What Sarah Said” video)

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A Note on my Header

My header image is something I produced a while back, and due to severe laziness on my part, I decided to reuse it here as a header.

The phrase “If three words could heal you, I would only speak two” are lyrics from Cherry Kiss by From Autumn to Ashes. Many of their songs have fantastic lyrics, but these particular lines have always resonated with me.

Whilst I make no pretence and analysing song lyrics regularly in much the similar way you are forced to in those long, tedious english literature lessons (can you tell I am a scientist at heart?), these lyrics do hold a stong meaning for me. It like having the power right then and there to cure someone, beginning to do so and holding back at the last minutes for a reason known only to you. To, in some ways, hold back that last word, just because you have the power to.

In life words have a great power that many people do not acknowledge, whether it be good or bad. People have killed themselves or others by being hurt or rejected by another, or thrown caution to the wind because someone whispered “I love you“. But also as doctors, those words can bring the gift of life or take it away. Just look in to the wishful eyes of a pateint who is about to be informed there is no longer any hope, if you wish to see the dramatic effect just a few words can have on a person entire perspective.

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