"Blinding" by Florence + the Machine

Another gem from my savior, Florence Welch. "Blinding" is kind of a break up song. She was in love, maybe she still is, but reality set in. It's the worst feeling when you realize that being in love with someone doesn't fix everything in your life. You still have responsibilities, all those problems you were ignoring are still there when you wake up from a cloud of infatuation. I think Florence's inspiration for "Blinding" was that stupid saying that "Love is blind." It's not - infatuation is blind. Real love is when you finally escape the addicted feeling and you're awake enough to see that the other person is not perfect - just a normal human - but you still want to be around them anyway. "Stranger in a Strange Land" summed up love best - "Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

"Blinding" borrows the imagery of the sleeping princess, like from Sleeping Beauty or Snow White (who makes an appearance in the song). Let's lay it all out there on the table - True Love's Kiss symbolized sexual awakening in classic fairy tales. The princess couldn't be saved until some prince/knight/knave/what-have-you awakened those desires. This is based on the assumption that sex starts with a kiss (which it usually does, unless you're Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman"). Obviously, Florence isn't using that particular symbolism here. Instead, the dream-like state she was in was that infatuation phase I was telling you about - the "Honeymoon" period, which is a real thing that happens. You have the "butterflies in your stomach feeling" and everything is all shiny and new. Like a trip into Wonderland. And it can last for a long time, if there aren't any complications. That's why experts say you shouldn't get married to someone until after you've been together for a year, by which time the Honeymoon period usually wears off. Now, not all relationships last that long, obviously - hence those complications. Especially when you're older, real life creeps in a lot faster. People realize their limitations a lot sooner. And Love, even if it exists, does not conquer all.

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack

And all around the world was waking, I never could go back

'Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn right open

And finally it seemed that the spell was broken

The quickness of it can feel disorienting, which is what the lyrics are trying to capture. The initial infatuation can make you feel weightless and young, and when it's over, everything seems to crumble and you just want to get it back. But you can't ever get it back. So what do you do when it ends? Do you let yourself become bitter? Depressed? Do you stop eating and sleeping? Do you let it destroy you? Florence Welch proposes something better than that - acknowledging that it's over. Once you do this, eventually, you move on - Snow White stitches up the circuit boards, i.e., your heart and mind heal and you're capable of loving again. And that's the happy ending. You will survive, just like Gloria Gaynor.

Thanks for listening to my cynical rambling. For your reward, you may listen to the song.

"Blinding" Video