Story Behind The Song

I used to give drug/alcohol presentations to high school/junior high audiences, persuading them to avoid substance abuse. In a lunch line following a program, I stood in their midst, and came to the realization that I, as a parent and mentor, am at least partially responsible for that generation's predicament.

Song Description

I see a strange, disconnected, unidentifiable group of people, lost and directionless. A closer look reveals that they are our own children, and their lostness and disconnection is the direct consequence of our own treatment of them.

Lyrics

??Faces obscured in the mist and the shadows of night...
I see their forms drifting far from the day and the night.
They come and they go and they move to and fro,
But where are they going? They don't seem to know.

And so I run toward them and call out an urgent appeal:
"Who are you? I'll help you! I've been there, I know how you feel!"
I plead and I cry, but they keep passing by.
Like clouds in the wind, onward they fly!

And so I run toward them, and stand in their way,
Hoping to keep them from going too far.
My heart stops in horror, but I can't turn away;
I've looked in their eyes and I know who they are:

We bore them a few years ago in our arms,
Confident, when they were easy to love;
Foreseeing no evil, and proud of their charms,
Our vision, we thought, was no less than enough.

But we were dishonest, we told them a lie:
That we had the answers, when we had no light.
But too proud to admit it, we let it go by,
Hoping somehow they would turn out all right.

But then they grew taller, and looked in our eyes, and they saw
The vacant expression we could not conceal any more.
And inside they died, without tears they cried;
They turned and walked off, while we ran off to hide.

?Faces obscured in the mist and the shadows of night...
I see their forms drifting far from the day and the night.
They come and they go and they move to and fro,
But where are they going? They don't seem to know.