4th century BC
Plato
- Idealism — forms over particulars
- The Republic ethic: “God is not the author of evil”
Notes
Track twelve is the most careful song on the album, and it needs to be heard exactly as written. It is about how the truth gets handed to a man - and it works hard not to make that man sound special. The men inside the camps get to a place and they sit down. The answers are all settled there, the questions are all closed. And nothing new comes to a man who has decided he is home.
The chorus states the gift plainly. God gives the truth to the campless. He hands the bread to the man still on the road. But hear the very next line, the guard rail of the whole song. Not because the campless man is better - he is not. The campless man kept walking for one unimpressive reason: there was no fence to make him stop. The song tells how a sentence I did not build came and landed in my hands one ordinary day of writing - and it refuses to let me take credit. A decent thinker did not make that.
The bridge is the most important part, and it is a deliberate disclaimer. Do not hear me say that God looked down and found me worth the giving. I have read the thing He gave me and I know I am not that good. He did not give it to the worthy, He gave it to the walking - and the walking was not virtue, the walking was just having nowhere left to sit. So the song never recites the sentence and never crowns the man. It only marvels that a gift was put in homeless hands because those hands were free. And a homeless man will carry it, and not set it down till he is home.
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
The men inside the camps, they get to a place and they sit down
The answers are all settled there, the questions are all closed
And a man who has sat down does not get up to follow anything
Nothing new comes to a man
Who has decided he is home
[Chorus]
But God gives the truth to the campless
He hands the bread to the man still on the road
Not because the campless man is better, he is not
But because the homeless are the ones who never stopped their walking
And you cannot give a road to a man who has sat down
God gives the truth to the campless
[Verse 2]
Now I never meant to be the one still walking when the gift came down
I would have loved a chair, I would have loved a settled room
But I had no camp to tell me that the road had reached its end
So I just kept on following the logic
Because there was no fence to make me stop
[Verse 3]
And then one ordinary day, just writing, following it down
A sentence that I did not build came and landed in my hands
One line, and everything I carried fell in place around it
And I knew that I had not made that
A decent thinker did not make that
[Chorus]
But God gives the truth to the campless
He hands the bread to the man still on the road
Not because the campless man is better, he is not
But because the homeless are the ones who never stopped their walking
And you cannot give a road to a man who has sat down
God gives the truth to the campless
[Bridge]
So do not hear me say that God looked down and found me worth the giving
I have read the thing He gave me and I know I am not that good
He did not give it to the worthy, He gave it to the walking
And the walking was not virtue
The walking was just having nowhere left to sit
[Final Verse and Outro]
So the sentence is not mine, I want to say that plain and clear
It was handed to a homeless man because his hands were free
God gives the truth to the campless
He hands the bread to the man still on the road
And a homeless man will carry it
And he will not set it down till he is home
Commentary