Real World

When I was a young child, we'd all pretend that we were soldiers
We would splint up into teams and reenact wars
Shooting with toy rifles and launching plastic mortars
But that doesn't seem like quite so much fun any more

(That's 'cause) fighting causes injuries in the real world
You can't hit the reset button, and play it one more time
Even heroes are haunted by the souls they leave behind
Fighting is so easy
But it's so hard to reconcile

When our son was first born, we vowed that we'd do better
Rifles and squirt guns were kept from his view
So he'd take a stick or point his finger, in an imaginary weapon
He didn't learn it from us, but yet somehow he knew

(You know) fighting causes injuries in the real world
You can't hit the reset button, and play it one more time
Even heroes are haunted by the souls they leave behind
Fighting is so easy
But it's so hard to reconcile

It should be easy to show kindness, and to say that I am sorry
Yet conflict seems as natural as breathing the air
It's much easier just to focus all the blame on one another
Feeling justified to say the meanest things
While claiming all the while we want justice to ring
Feuding is instinctive
But it takes Love to set things right

I saw a cardinal break his neck once, while I was sitting drinking coffee
He was fighting with a rival who wouldn't back down
Except it was only his reflection, he was seeing in my window
And his rival and himself, lay dead on the ground

Fighting causes injuries in the real world
You can't hit the reset button, and play it one more time
Even heroes are haunted by the souls they leave behind
Fighting is so easy
But it's so hard to reconcile
Feuding is instinctive
But it takes love to make things right