Flood

Let’s skip ahead in the Undertow CD to “Flood.” This song probably has my favorite lyrics on the disk. There is a long intro before they really get into the song. I’m not too fond of the intro and usually fast forward to the main song. I’ve never heard this song played live and don’t often hear Tool fans talk about it. I think it may be the intro that killed it, because the actual song is really good.

Flood is about being broken down. It is about the process of having everything you believe in taken from you. Maynard uses the metaphor of a flood coming in and washing everything away.

For me, I made two big transitions in my personal philosophy and neither was particularly easy. The first was a move from theism to atheism. The problem with this transition is that it takes you from having the answers to not having the answers. So then you have to work to find answers. If you don’t appreciate the search, then you would probably not become an atheist.

Anyway, the first stanza describes the loss. I like the use of the word “comfort” with religion. It is a comfort to have that belief, but it just wasn’t working anymore. The second stanza is also really good. So now the flood has come through and screwed things up. Now I have to take whatever pieces of who I was with Theism with me. Everything becomes questioned, but there are certain things that make me who I am. Anyway, I you take what you can and move on. I really like the final line, “This ground is not the rock I thought it to be.”

All I knew and all I believed
are crumbling images
that no longer comfort me.
I scramble to reach higher ground,
some order and sanity,
or something to comfort me.

So I take what is mine, and hold what is mine,
suffocate what is mine, and bury what's mine.
Soon the water will come
and claim what is mine.
I must leave it behind,
and climb to a new place now.

This ground is not the rock I thought it to be.

Then came Ayn Rand and Objectivism. Ayn did not make me an atheist, but she did give me all the comfort in ideals and beliefs that I got from theism. I was back on top of the world and soaring with confidence with Objectivism. I probably never fully understood what it was, but the heroes of her books were great characters to aspire to. I think Atlas Shrugged’s Henry Rearden inspired me to become a Materials Scientist/Engineer.

Kyle broke me of the Objectivism. I don’t remember exactly how he did it, but it was an important transition in my life. I’m glad he did it. I was more intense and more of an asshole in those days, which probably made the loss of Objectivism tougher.

The last couple of stanzas in the song describe this new found Objectivism and subsequent loss. The final line has a nice acceptance or request for the process. The whole song sums up my path from age 13 to 21 quite well. Things have stabilized since then.

Thought I was high, and free.
I thought I was there
divine destiny.

I was wrong.
This changes everything.

The water is rising up on me.
Thought the sun would come deliver me,
but the truth has come to punish me instead.

The ground is breaking down right under me.
Cleanse and purge me
in the water.