A true non-occurrence.
christian
thoughtful
meaningful
reflective
Story behind the song
Now and then I get a song idea and I don't know if it's a good idea to write it or not. This is a case in point. I think it's a really good song, but it bothers me. Like Mighty Brown River, this is a true incident. I was driving home from a Bible study one night, shortly after a friend of mine had died of a drug overdose. He had told me, sometime before his death, that this one particular area of town was a center of drug abuse and prostitution. It was kind of pathetic that I'd lived in Kamloops ten years and hadn’t known this. In any case, I had to drive through the district in question to get home and on this particular night a prostitute was standing under a streetlight on one of the corners. It was a bitterly cold night. Yet she was dressed in a mini-dress. She was a pathetic sight. I felt very disturbed, as if I should have been able to help her.
Lyrics
Halo
I saw you on the corner,
But I didn't cast a stone.
When you live beneath a streetlight,
Then your halo's not your own.
When your ally is the darkness,
Then you know you have no friends.
Then the alleys are your fortune,
That you never live to spend.
I felt a finger writing,
In my very human clay.
"If you only met the Saviour,
Then you'd be free today."
You're here to sell your body.
Christ's there to buy your soul.
When you break yourself in little pieces.
Then Christ can make you whole.
I couldn't help but notice,
What you did your best to show.
In shame I turned too quickly,
In truth you turned slow.
I'm too flesh to help you,
Or help would be too hard.
We sell ourselves so cheaply,
When we don't know who we are.
I left the corner bleakly,
Left you in the streetlight's shine.
I guess you keep your halo,
And I guess - I keep mine.
Could I buy you ice-cream?
Could I buy you spring?
Could I buy you innocence?
If I Could buy you anything?
I'd buy you free!