Activity #2

I chose Belief by John Mayer for this activity because it it one of my favorite songs and I believe that a lot of his statements in the song are true. It was hard for me to decide at first which of his songs to chose because many of them have a great meaning to me, but when I remembered this one I knew it was the one. As a young person, I think that many of my peers may relate to this song as well.

I think that in this song, John Mayer is trying to explain that the reason for many of the struggles and conflicts between people are sometimes simply because the sides have different beliefs, and it is not always possible to change someone's beliefs. For example, he says that no one changes their mind just from "paint on a sign" or from someone just yelling "loud one time". Everyone has their own beliefs and not many people are willing to give them up, hence the line "Everyone believes in how they think it ought to be... and they're not going easily". Another line in the song says "We're never gonna stop the war, we're never gonna beat this if belief is what we're fighting for". This could be applied to the current war our country is fighting because I believe that it is true that we cannot win the war if we begin to fight for "belief" and to try to change the beliefs of others.

This song means something to me because the lyrics are powerful and it tells how powerful beliefs can be and what they can do to people, like put "a hundred thousand children in the sand" or a "folded flag inside his mother's hand”. I can also relate to it because I know that when I see someone being obnoxious about trying to change people's beliefs, like about the upcoming election for example, it definitely does not change my mind. I think that many others feel the same way as well, and also appreciate John Mayer's lyrics.

I changed the font of quite a few of these lyrics to try to express what they mean to me and possibly to others. I changed the word "belief" throughout the song to a light blue curvy italic font to express that beliefs are intimate values that people hold. The fact that I put the words “one time” in very small letters shows how insignificant it is for someone to yell something loud just one time. The phrase “they’re not going easily” is in a bold font with capital letters to show that people are not going to change their beliefs very easily. For the phrase “like punching underwater” I used a small and curvy blue font which is hard to read to signify that it is difficult to punch someone underwater. I believe the chorus of the song is the most important part. For the one of the phrases, “we’re never gonna win the world” I bolded the word “never” and used red white and blue font for “win the world” to express that this part of the song could apply to our country. The last section of the song is fairly sad, because it talks about how beliefs and standing up for them can cause horrible things. For example, one line reads “what puts a folded flag inside his mother’s hand? Belief can…” I put the word “flag” in red and blue writing to show it may possibly represent a fallen soldier.

I think that the changes I made to the font of the lyrics help to express the meaning of them and show the power of belief. Making these changes also made me think more deeply about the words and the song in general and what its purpose is.