Subdivisions —
In the high school halls
In the shopping malls
Conform or be cast out
Subdivisions —
In the basement bars
In the backs of cars
Be cool or be cast out

Subdivisions performed by Rush

Written by Neil Peart.

So my friends and I had a pretty deep conversation the other day. One of our friends who I will call Jack is having a problem trying to find his passion or purpose. Let me give you a brief history on what I know about him. He’s led a pretty rough life that led him to believe that people don’t really care about each other. He also believes that in order to be a strong person he has to ignore any and all emotions leading to caring about people. Above all he wants to be a hero in his eyes. It does not matter what others think of him as long as he becomes who he wants to be. He talks about how he likes our company but really he doesn’t care about anyone but himself.

I know that everyone is selfish to a point and I told him this. I also told him that people are not as bad as he thinks they are. Someone can really care for someone they have never met and will never meet in person. He likes to talk to me because he said that he likes the way I think, in the fact that I’m very direct. He said that I think like a guy. I get that a lot but I don’t really like being told that because I think it’s rude toward all other girls in the world including myself. I don’t think like a guy, I think like me. I always laugh it off because I know that they think it’s because I put my emotions aside and get to the point when I talk. Which is true but I don’t believe that a person can put their emotion and opinions aside 100 % of the time.

He said he wants to be a man of change. To change someone’s life or change the world it doesn’t matter. I told him that I can see why it’s hard for him to find a passion or a purpose. He asked me to explain so I told him that he wants to be a hero and change people’s lives but to do so he needs a goal and really, how can you save lives if you don’t care in the first place? I told him that everyone changes each other, no matter if it’s small or big but every interaction leaves a mark. He asked me if I was talking about the chaos theory; which we narrowed down to the butterfly effect. I told him that I wasn’t thinking so big because I don’t really know if I believe in that theory completely but yeah something along that line.