Neither Could Dylan

Pirate ends with a feeling of being inspired to take action, something I hope everyone feels at some point in their lifetime where they’re driven by whatever they’re most passionate about (and this can be many different things over time, of course). But it’s not always quite as easy as jumping into creating a plan and fighting your way to victory. Instead, this type of reality check we give ourselves, at least in my experience, can come with an overwhelming feeling of dejection. 

Here’s an example of that shift from inspiration to dejection as it played out in real time for me. 

When Hilary Clinton was up against Donald Trump for President of the United States, I felt like we were witnessing an incredible moment in history. Just as I watched Barack Obama’s speeches and felt empowered by this dramatic shift we were all hoping for, to be as close as we were to a woman President for the first time ever was remarkable. 

And say what you will of it, but the decision seemed like an absolute no brainer to me from what I understood of the candidates. Hilary has an extremely diverse range of experience in politics and was formerly a First Lady – you simply could not get more experienced than she was at the time of her campaign. She understood the talk, the walk and what the job entailed. She was ready for difficult decisions because she’s already been making them for decades. 

And then you had a misogynist who was outwardly, unapologetically crass, rude, racist, and self-important, a self-proclaimed world class businessman who had actually proven on multiple occasions that he wasn’t even any good at that. He wouldn’t have been able to have made any sort of career for himself without the financial aid of his father – something most Americans actually can’t relate to. 

And as the scandals spilled out and his loose lips continued to out him for a worthless sack, surely the American people would also see this decision as a no-brainer. 

As I did for most elections, that year I sat in my apartment to watch the election results as they came through on CNN. When I started watching the coverage, I was still optimistic and excited for the type of change we might see coming from the United States if Hilary won the ballot. 

Yes, I’m Canadian, but I’m very aware of how the American political scene affects us here and their influence on a global level. This was an important election to say the least. 

Somewhere about midway through the programming it became obvious that the votes were not going in my preferred favour. And not long after that things started to take a sweeping turn for the worse. This was more devastating than the Leafs blowing a 3-goal lead to the Bruins and the sinking feeling that entered my gut and ravaged it until I could no longer bare to watch, not needing the final tallies to come through to know what was happening, was awful. 

That election was not just a failure for Hilary Clinton and the American people, but for all people and especially women. 

I had believed most of my life that if you had experience, knowledge, charisma and strong leadership qualities, you would be able to work my way up any ladder, corporate or otherwise. In fact men of the world had expressed to extreme degrees over my entire life that if a male candidate secured any job over a woman it came down only to the fact that he was more qualified. 

This has been proven, on that night and just about every single day before and after in boardrooms, offices and trade rooms everywhere, to be false. Your qualifications in most spaces do not supersede things like your sex, race, or orientation and I groan and roll my eyes at anyone who tries to claim this isn’t true. Some companies and leaders have made positive strides in these areas, but by and large it’s still a massive disparity and internal bias still overwhelmingly overlooks these issues. 

I have a warehouse full of my own experience that speak to this, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Check out the statistics and speak to women and marginalized groups to understand how grossly prevalent this is and if it doesn’t make your stomach churn then congratulations, you’re part of the problem. 

Abandon is a look at feeling, well, abandoned. Abandoned by those you thought loved you or who you feel should care for you; Your communities, your leaders, your friends. It describes the immense pressure and the grief we feel when we are in this type of place, mentally struggling and feeling completely alone with only negative thoughts and experiences to dwell on. 

It’s the point of Foxchase where we see ourselves in our darkest hour with little hope of getting through it. It also sees us getting encased in the anger we began to feel in Pirate and realizing that this isn’t somewhere we can stay if we want to survive it. 

And clearly, wherever we are going from here, we must have the courage to go alone. 

Official Lyrics:
I’m not sure I can take anymore 
My hearts been hurt but not like this before 
I don’t know if there was any point 
I’m a broken dollar bill in a machine that doesn’t accept coins

I am the departed 
I am the flood 
I am abandon 
I am your blood 
This city is exile 
It’s ghosts never sleep 
They wander alone
Unsafe in its streets 

There are rooms by the hour 
They come without locks 
There are phones but no power 
And no one ever knocks 

I am the departed 
I am the flood 
I am abandon 
I am your blood 

I’m not sure I can take anymore 
My hearts been hurt but not like this before 
I don’t know who can go on this way
I’m a starving vulture ahead of harvest and you are all my prey

I am the departed 
I am the flood 
I am abandon 
I am your blood 
This city is exile 
It’s ghosts never sleep 
We wander alone
Unsafe in its streets

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Welcome to Act II.

Keep listening and jump over to track 7: Let’s Not