An Act Of Kindness Songtext / Lyric

I'm trying to make up my mind

Madness or cruel-to-be-kind?

Your mother was sick or blind

When she gave her child away



But what she did

She did out of love

She must have meant it

As an act of kindness



And having never had a kid myself

I cannot understand the pressures

"...you must be sick in the head

You need a hospital bed" she said

"Properly fed" she said

"Or you're going to wind up dead"



So you were put

In the hands of science

Strangers who understood

Better than mothers could

It was really "for your own good"






See, we find these ways

To justify it all

Are they really working?



I'm trying to make up my mind



I'm trying to make up my mind

It gets harder every time

I see a baby mother

Or think about growing up and having kids



Oh God, she must have done it out of love

I must believe it was an act of kindness

I keep imagining the film 'Girl Interrupted'

With less attractive inmates



"All of the things that you feel

They are a fucking disease" they said

"We diagnose it with ease" they said

"There is no hope of a release" they said



So you found yourself

Inside a prison with no escape

Tied to a gurney with thick red tape

Nursing a wound that is mother-shape



"When can I go back home?

I want to make a fucking call

All these pills do is make me sleep..."

Onetwoonetwoonetwo



You wished you could unmake yourself

Become something else

To be something awful

"To be smoke and shadow"



I understand the idea that A.D.D. is an imbalance

'Depression,' that is an imbalance of chemicals

It makes sense.



But couldn't you argue that everything is?

Joy, fear, anger, sadness?

Can you diagnose love?

Can you diagnose loss?

See, we find this ways

To justify it all

But is it really working?