Repeat after me:
I am not an animal. I am not an animal.
I understand why you act the way you do
Grown-up thinking you belong to a zoo
Eyes everywhere staring, glaring down at you
Under pressure to perform lest they see right through
But we need to clear our heads if we think it’s all “their” fault. Need to dust the truth off that we’ve locked up in the vault. It’s called “suppression” for a reason, because stopping’s not default. We’re meant to see the truth and meant to follow through; to travel to the ends of the kosmos’ own preview.
I understand why you act the way you do
Grown-up thinking you belong to a zoo
Eyes everywhere staring, glaring down at you
Under pressure to perform lest they see right through
We’re born with a proclivity to hault mental activity that raises sensitivity to our dangerous captivity. Born (in chains); live (disdained); die (ordained) and that’s our lot in life. Even though it’s vanity of vanities to try to touch the sky, we know that we’re all born to live and die. There’s no escaping from this clarity in actuality – we see eternity as something much more than fantasy.
Much more than fantasy.
Much more than fantasy…
I understand why you act the way you do
Grown-up thinking you belong to a zoo
Eyes everywhere staring, glaring down at you
Under pressure to perform lest they see right through
Dogs will eat their vomit, that’s not hyperbole – it’s just a fact. And men will always kill in heart the things they can’t attack. Disguised in our minds is a lie we cannot see; it’s disturbing when you notice it’s an elephant behind a tree. Nothing’s hidden, but we’re blind so we pretend we’re only free. “No chains or fetters are binding me!” Yet we bind ourselves to falsehood, we vote as absentee – unwilling or unable to be present when it matters most to be.
I understand why you act the way you do
Grown-up thinking you belong to a zoo
Eyes everywhere staring, glaring down at you
Under pressure to perform lest they see right through
I’m not an animal when convenient and an animal when convenient, too. Raging, claiming lusts and appetites to foods; I’m all synapse and instinct when it comes to truth. Stimuli response and the “id” when it helps me satisfy – every craving and tasting and yearning to gratify. But when offended and unfriended, a human I want to be – precious image-bearer worthy of respect and dignity. How convenient that this is how it works for me!
I understand why you act the way you do
Grown-up thinking you belong to a zoo
Eyes everywhere staring, glaring down at you
Under pressure to perform lest they see right through
I tried to cast it off, tried to throw restraint, but it turns out that inhibition is baked right in the cake. If I’m a human being then I’ve got the sight to see that my humanity is most important to me. I can put off my hunger, and put away my pride; but not because the two theories coincide. I’m not a mammal, an animal, a beast, or glorified. I’m a human and I’m living, more than twitching nerves to stimuli.
Repeat after me:
I am not an animal. I am not an animal.
What advantage do I have in this experiment? What goes around, comes around, and it’s got my fingerprints. I’ll reap what I sow and it seems I’ve sown the wind. Cognitive dissonance is a boomerang and pretending I’m a beast is a sin. And then it hits you like a prowling wolverine: nothing is as what it seems, and I’m a human being.
I understand why you act the way you do
Grown-up thinking you belong to a zoo
Eyes everywhere staring, glaring down at you
Under pressure to perform lest they see right through
Repeat after me:
I am not an animal. I am not an animal.
Imago Dei. Imago Christus.
