The Real Trick

(album: Loco Gringo's Lament - 1994)

Christopher turned sixteen on a chemical dependency wing
And on family week his mama come up and she says "I ain't gonna stay for this whole thing"
She says "I've got more important things to do than to listen to this ungrateful son"
Chris said "If being a parent's so tough how come just anybody can be one?"

Sweet Melissa, she turned her first trick at seventeen
For some backstage passes and some hash that's in the back of a limousine
And now she's seen it all and she don't want to be here or even anywhere
And at twenty-two she's got what the boys down at the VA call the "thousand-yard stare"

But the real trick is to find a reason to believe in spite of all of this
And the big secret is, what you're looking for, you're looking with

Miss Helen Petty, she lost her husband of forty-two years
Now she don't know what to do with herself and she just can't seem to stop the tears
And she can't sleep at night and she is so afraid and so alone
But there are these bastards who take advantage of these precious desperate souls

Like, there's this man on Sunday morning on TV who jumps around and screams and shouts
And he says to get me into heaven is the only thing that he is about
But to get there I've got to believe what he believes
Well, if that's the case I believe I'll take my chances when it's time for me to leave

But the real trick is to find a reason to believe in spite of all of this
And the big secret is, what you're looking for, you're looking with

We're all lengthening shadows cast by a sinking sun
So we need this reason to believe in something or someone
It is so hard to accept these many things on faith alone
And we feel betrayed by life when the infidelity is our own

I don't concern myself with how Jesus was born or if he was raised from the dead
I believe what it comes down to was the things that he said
So many more than Judas has betrayed his name
This beautiful ancient wisdom's been prostituted for personal gain

But the real trick is to find a reason to believe in spite of all of this
And the big secret is, what you're looking for, you're looking with