While I wouldn’t call myself a die-hard fan, I’ve enjoyed listening to Coldplay ever since their debut album ‘Parachutes’ was released in 2000.
And like countless others, I can’t help but love their genre-defying 2008 single, ‘Viva La Vida’. The melody is undeniably catchy, paired with Chris Martin’s emotive voice, and yet the lyrics have always escaped me. To be honest, they sounded like gibberish.
Sure, I could have looked up the lyrics and their official meaning online, but even then, they still felt cryptic-like, trying to solve a riddle without a key.
Until last week, that is.
During my weekend long run, with ‘Viva La Vida’ playing on my playlist, I finally understood what the song means. And it’s not what you might think.
While the official interpretation of the song speaks of the French Revolution and King Louis XVI lamenting his lost crown, I’ve found a different resonance in its verses.
You see, I truly believe that ‘Viva la Vida’ is essentially a love song: when you’re in love, don’t you feel like you rule the world? The streets feel like they were built with your name, and every bell seems to toll for your joy. But when love crumbles, as it sometimes does, the world comes crashing down with equal force. The castles you built in the air become ruins of what could have been, so on and so forth.
You see, it doesn’t matter whether Chris Martin wrote it about the French Revolution or something else entirely. What matters is what the song means to me, how it speaks to my heart, and the truth I’ve found within its verses. In finding my own interpretation, I’ve made the song more meaningful than any official explanation could ever be.
The heart knows better
As Rumi once wrote, ‘Only from the heart can you touch the sky’. This truth echoes in how we interpret not just poetry and songs, but life itself. The beauty of art, much like life, lies not in following prescribed meanings but in finding our own truth within them.
Think about it: How often have we accepted others’ interpretations of things without questioning if they align with our own understanding? We often forget that in matters of the heart and mind, there are no absolute authorities. While facts remain that the sun rises in the east, and water freezes at zero degrees Celsius, matters of meaning are deeply personal.
For me, the journey of finding personal meaning became clear during a chance visit to a small art exhibit some years ago. One painting caught my attention – a single tree standing alone on a hill under a moody, stormy sky.
The artist’s description mentioned themes of isolation and solitude, yet to me, it felt like a portrait of resilience. I saw that tree as defying the storm, holding its ground with quiet strength.
For years, whenever life got overwhelming, I’d think of that tree, not because of the artist’s vision but because of what it came to mean to me.
That’s the beauty of interpretation. Whether it’s a song, a poem, or even a path in life, the truest meaning is the one that resonates with your own journey. Just as every reader finds their own story within the pages of a book, every listener finds their own truth within the notes of a song, or the brushstrokes of a painting.
But why is it that we so often feel the need to defer to others? Perhaps it’s easier to accept someone else’s narrative rather than wrestle with ambiguity. Or perhaps we fear being wrong, as if personal meaning could ever be wrong. It can take courage to trust your own instincts and embrace the meanings that speak to you, but doing so makes life infinitely richer.
Take a step back and consider this: Who defines your idea of success? Who decides what happiness means to you? Who determines whether you’ve lived a meaningful life?
These aren’t questions others can answer for you. They’re questions you must answer for yourself.
Life isn’t about following maps others have drawn. It’s about forging your own path, listening to your heart, and finding your own melody in the symphony of the world. The official interpretation of ‘Viva la Vida’ might speak of revolution and royalty, but if your heart finds in it a story of love’s rise and fall, who’s to say you’re wrong?
So, the next time someone tries telling you the correct way to understand something subjective, remember this: While expertise and knowledge have their place, personal meaning has its own validity. Your interpretation of a song, your understanding of resilience, your definition of happiness, these are yours to define.
Because in the end, true fulfilment doesn’t come from following paths others have mapped out. It comes from having the courage to find your own way, create your own meaning, and yes, even discover your own song in someone else’s melody.
And that’s where true happiness lives.
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.
