This quote comes from Nirvana’s song Dumb. Fans have read a lot into Cobain’s lyrics, but the truth is, he was an admittedly “lazy” lyric writer. He focused on creating rather complex and brilliant intricate melodies and sounds in the music. And he would often write the lyrics at the last minute, and he said they didn’t have much meaning. He preferred that people draw their own conclusions about the meaning of his music. And that really is the beauty of music, isn’t it? The same music can mean radically different things to people.
But I love the line in this song, “The sun is gone, but I have a light.” To me, the light can mean anything. It can be escaping through substances, or it can mean resiliency. It can mean even in the darkest of times, you can choose to be a light.
When you refuse to be overtaken by the darkness, you build resiliency. Only in overcoming these challenges can we learn that we can do it and how incredibly resourceful we are. I wrote a previous post about steps you can take to increase your own resiliency here.
