Landslide

Oh my god. That's it. I get it. I understand "Landslide." At least, the song perfectly aligns with what I think.

The landslide is life--people moving away, leaving each other, going to Florence, getting a job in Boston, you missing your chance, not seeing each other at a reunion, buying a new car, reading a book, all the things that make up the pragmatic, unflinching, ruthless, cold event of change, the subtle, unnoticeable, unalarming drifter that weaves in and out until the patters of our lives are no longer woven the same way.

She has been on the journey. She has finished the task. She "took [her] love and took it down," removed it from the high pedestal it was on. It no longer is the center of existence. She "climbed a mountain and turned around," she has complete the cycle of love and loss. She saw what she loved in the snow-covered hills, but life--the landslide-- brought it down. It turned the crystal-clear reflection of love into a shambled, crumbled mess of nothing.

And now she's looking back, seeing how she was "afraid of changing, because [she] built [her] life around you," a love. The singer has said this song is about her decision to leave a band--I think it is about someone moving on from love and encouraging the other to do the same. In this way, this double meaning, it is art.

She couldn't change, she was unable to make herself do it for so long, "but time makes you bolder, even children get older," she says. "I'm getting older, too." She is realizing that she has gained the ability to say goodbye.

And now, she turns to him. "Take my love, and take it down." Let go of what we had. Learn to live-- "climb a mountain and turn around." Go through the struggle, the pain of loving then having to let go. "And if you see my reflection in the snow covered hills," she tells him, "the landslide will bring it down." Life will help you heal. If you still love me, it will fade. This is not an angry message or bitterness--this is the wisdom of one talking to a person she cares about and will always want the best for. And now, the best thing to do is let go.

I have never understood this song the many times I have listened to it. But today, for the first time, it all made sense.