11. WHY? - “One Mississippi”

As someone who has experienced profound tragedy and loss this song bears special significance. Losing a loved one is something that never really goes away. One continuously carries it with them, but like any weight, you grow used to it, adapting to the experience, becoming either desensitized to its presence or strengthened by its existence. I know that I’m not alone or unique in this experience. However, I also know that each experience is unique, much in the same way that each life and relationship are unique.

Nevertheless, I feel like this song does a great job at capturing the aforementioned weight and the ensuing confusion that so often accompany the aftermath of loss. For many of us, we know what should be done, or rather what is expected of us, and yet despite this knowledge the mind and the heart remain fickle things to control, often hovering just outside of our reach as if responding to some unknown gravity. Yoni’s lyrics function as a mantra of sorts, somewhat like an anchor in the midst of an interminable storm. He knows that there is nothing he can do. Life, god, fate, the universe – whatever one chooses to call it, has spoken, and the meaning (if any) is far beyond his ability to comprehend. All he can do now is accept what has already happened. He has to submit to the forces around him, and the existence he can’t even begin to understand or lay claim to. It’s by no means an easy task, and it defintiely takes time (hence one mississippi), but it is the only way to carry onward and begin to focus on life, rather than death, once again.