I ran into the following excerpt that inspired this song. I hope you find something in it that hooks your mind up just like it did for me.

“Hypocrisy is unavoidable and necessary. If people were required, at all times, to live up to ideals of honesty, loyalty, and compassion in order for those ideals to exist, there would be no ideals. Being a moral person is a struggle in which everyone repeatedly fails, becoming a hypocrite in each of those moments. A just and peaceful society depends on hypocrites who ultimately refused to abandon the ideals they betray.” 
Michael Gerson

*****

Couldn't if I tried

couldn't help to be the first to walk away
troubled, stone-in-hand
who am I to say that I know better?

what's the point in making claims I couldn't possibly sustain and
is it better than to look the other way and to throw my hands up?

they say i should let go
that it's indefensible
not worth the effort
and just hypocritical
but i'd hate myself
because I'm not that cynical
they say to let go
but I couldn't if I tried
but I couldn't if I tried
no I couldn't if I tried

how can anybody face the doom and gloom,
the elephant in the room
when we often fail at making sense?

what's the point in making claims no one could possibly sustain and
is it better than to look the other way and to throw our hands up?

most of us are tryna be better
and all of us are far from there
should we just give up
since we know we'll fail again?

Couldn't If I Tried

Nashville songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Godin Guitars Official Artist and Founder of www.songaweek.org.

His catalog of 500+ titles includes collaborations with hit writers Mark Narmore, Elliott Park, Steve Dean, and Pete & Pat Luboff, among others internationally from England to Australia.

Redding's music has landed cuts by numerous recording artists including Dan Whitehouse, Emma Gale, and David Easterling.

singer/songwriter, half of Cabin of Love, quarter of The Foragers

Official account of Erin Wolf for Song A Week 2019-present. • For 2016-2018 Song A Week archives, follow @erniwolf or click the link below.

Couldn't If I Tried

cristhopper