Sade sings this tune about poverty, suffering and the human spirit called pearls.the poor woman in the song is doing all she can to survive, and in the end Sade likens this pain to the pain of brand-new shoes...(scroll past song for further drivel)
There is a woman in somalia
Scraping for pearls on the roadside
There's a force stronger than nature
Keeps her will alive
That's how she's dying
She's dying to survive
Don't know what she's made of
I would like to be that brave
She cries to the heaven above
There is a stone in my heart
She lives a life she didn't choose
And it hurts like brand-new shoes
Hurts like brand-new shoes
There is a woman in somalia
The sun gives her no mercy
The same sky we lay under
Burns her to the bone
Long as afternoon shaddows
It's gonna take her to get home
Each grain carefully wrapped up
Pearls for her little girl
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
She cries to the heaven above
There is a stone in my heart
She lives a life she didn't choose
And it hurts like brand-new shoes
sad song. i can relate to the pain of brand new shoes (though more literally than the tune). you see every 50 years or so i go out and purchase a brand-new pair of doc martins. i love them, but i use to hate them. when i bought my first pair they hurt like the dickens. dug into my heel, rubbed my foot all wrong. my achilles would blister and bleed. they were expensive too which only compounded my dashed expectations. i remember swearing (silently) to my haberdasher, "i'll never buy a pair of these again!".
but as time moved on, they grew on me. my feet callused in the appropriate places and they became bearable, even comfortable. before long they were my favorite shoes. i wore them all the time, much to my wifes chagrin. one might say that the pain that the docs and i shared, bonded us.
i have a new pair. but i still wear the old ones as much as i can. when i dont need to impress anyone. and when its not raining (water leaks up through a crack in the sole). i guess i couldnt bear to toss them. theyre like an old friend.
interesting. is there an inherent benefit in pain and suffering?
sure people say it can make us stronger (calluses) but i think
it can also draw us closer.
new and old doc martin's: