In this album we are exploring many different aspects of the Flesh of Life. In most of the songs so far we have been celebrating the joys and possibilities of having a body, of being able to feel and connect to others, ourselves and our environment.
Yet, what about the experiences of those who do not celebrate the body, or whose relationship to their body is expressed in a highly different fashion. In Scarlet Fever I attempt to inhabit the world and skin of a person who habitually cuts themselves, or who has a craving to cause themselves to bleed.
Throughout the recorded history of man people have felt a need and a use for self flagellation, mutilation and self-induced injury. The supposed motivations and reasons behind such actions have changed with the time periods. In many cultures such behaviors had a role and function in important rites and rituals of the society.
Some 35 years ago when I began working with kids in residential facilities “cutting” behavior was quite rare, while over the past decade of so it has become quite common. It is for this reason that in Scarlet Fever I chose to try and enter the skin, heart and mind of a person who cuts.
Though it is often instructive and helpful to look at the psychological and emotional factors that may lie behind the desire to cut or mutilate oneself, one should never ignore that fact that it also involves the visceral relationship a “cutter” has with their body.
While psychological explanation help reassure us and make “the problem” more understandable and manageable, a more organic and corporeal exploration may prove more instructive to both the therapist and the cutter themselves. The more we empathize with the experience and need, the more likely our assistance, guidance and interventions will fulfill those needs in a more life affirming manner.
lyrics
Scarlet Fever 8/24/12
Internal fictions give rise to her doubt
As I’m walking in she’s pleading “let me out”
Look, she’s moving the other way
Deeper and deeper she rambles far astray
Soon she’s drowning in her dismay
Self-loathing she uses to pierce her own skin
Conflict is the drug she’s been mainlining
Like the blood oozing out of her pores
Her pangs will soon be begging for more
Drunk from sanguine release
Giddily she drops to her knees
She smiles like everything’s fine
Deep down she desperately yearns to die
Lost in the valley of her regrets
Her eyes turn ice cold and quite vacant
She’s breathing yet barely alive
All she see’s is in scarlet
All she feels leaves her so depressed
Her blood cries to rush outside
She’s lost in scarlet fever’s dreams
She’s bleeding her scarlet fever dream
She’s quite dizzy with relief
Yet, the pressure is never fully released
She’s both princess and the beast
Scarlet fever is her only remedy
Dreaming Scarlet Fever Dreams
Endless streams of Scarlet Fever Dreams
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