Paul David

In the movie, The Empire Strikes Back, Our intrepid hero, Luke Skywalker is trying to get his X-Wing Fighter out of the swamp he’s supposed to use the force. He fails and says, “Moving rocks is one thing, this is completely different.”

His mentor Yoda is emphatic that it is not, only different in how you think about it in your mind. He tells him he must, “Unlearn what you have learned.” That is the essence of this song.

When I was young I was taught to care about things, and I did. But I don’t remember my elders telling me to only care about the things that inspired me, so I began to care about things like what people thought of me… as most of us do.

In high school I could do anything without regard to my reputation. But when I got to college, I wanted to be “one of the cool kids” and liked—I had stumbled upon low self-esteem.

When I first figured out I was gay, I met someone whom I consider part of my soul family, but I couldn’t be gay and I was WAY too clingy, so there was a lot of drama around my relationships—ups and downs—like a rollercoaster being driven by my insecurities.

Well, if I am to be successful at human-ing, I really need to rewind myself—get back to the way I used to be before I dulled my shine.