Close-up: Armstrong – Blood

(written by Will Armstrong)

“Blood is failure.
Blood is getting knocked down (physically or mentally).
Blood is reaching for a goal and missing it.
Blood is rejection.
Blood is loss.

This song is about the blood in life. It’s about all the times we get hit in the mouth and knocked in the dirt. But more importantly, it’s about our reaction to the blood and how we perceive it when it happens.

Many people see failure, loss, and rejection as a stop sign in life. A brick wall with a huge sign that says “GO HOME! YOU LOST! IT’S OVER! YOU’RE DONE!”. And the sad part is: most people believe it.

This song is about a realization. An epiphany. A defining moment that changes everything. It’s the moment we realize that the failures in life make us who we are today. It’s embracing the fact that, though it hurts, the failure in life is just hardening our armor and turning us into gladiators.
To illustrate this, I’ll point to an important question in the song that we should all ask ourselves. I won’t quote every word here, but it basically asks:

What if EVERYTHING in life were easy, and you NEVER had to go through ANY pain or struggle?

Now really stop and think about that for a minute. Just pause and soak in that question. Would you be the person you are now? Would you have anywhere close to the kind of strength you have today? That answer is unequivocally NO.

Without failure, we don’t learn! If we never make mistakes, how can we know what works and what doesn’t? If we never have anything to improve upon, how can we ever truly grow?
Without failure, we can’t truly appreciate the good because we don’t know what the opposite feels like. You just can’t fully appreciate the great things in life without tasting at least a little of the bad. What does this mean? It means WITHOUT FAILURE ON SOME LEVEL, WE CAN NEVER BE TRULY HAPPY!

So don’t be afraid of the blood in life. Don’t hide from the world in hopes that you’ll never get hurt or “bleed”. Become “so used to bleeding that I’ve come to like the taste.” For this attitude will make you unstoppable, and those experiences will pave the way to happiness.”

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The ‘Close-up’ series contains insight provided by artists about their work.