Invincible: Unbeatable. Indestructible. Powerful. Strong. The former words can all used to describe Music Monday’s empowering anthem by Pat Benetar called “Invincible.” Benetar sings the personal and authoritative fight song that will make you rise to your feet, sing out loud, and fire you up to beating the monsters that trouble you.
Benetar recorded “Invincible” in 1985, so it is a little dusty, but the take-no-prisoners lyrics completely address what many of us are going through. Benetar said this was her favorite song out of all her catalogue, and it’s no surprise. It’s about the struggle of life, overcoming our obstacles, and facing whatever troubles us, whether it is a mental illness/disorder or a physical ailment. Benetar triumphs in this classic rock expression of liberation, emancipation, and freedom, and encourages us to revel in our own freedom through the following lyrics:
First Stanza
This bloody road remains a mystery
This sudden darkness fills the air
What are we waiting for?
Won’t anybody help us?
What are we waiting for?
The first stanza lays out the whole song. There’s a road we must travel that is uncertain to us, covered in darkness, so we can’t see what we’re going, but it’s to dangerous to stay where we are. Fighting for ourselves is untraveled territory. Benetar asks the three most important questions of the song: why are we waiting to fight for ourselves, why is there no help given to us, and she reiterates for emphasis, “What are we waiting for?” Benetar is saying that now is the time to act. We’ve waitied long enough for justice. It’s time to do something about it.
Second Stanza:
We can’t afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible
Innocence and being complacent in our illness or life’s obstacles is not a choice we have. any longer. The fact that she says we must “stand up” implies we have been sitting all this time, not taking action, not facing our enemy, and we can’t allow ourselves to be passive anymore. It’s do or die. All or nothing. The need is dire and urgent. And we will come out victorious because no one can beat us if we have the courage to face the enemy.
Third Stanza:
This shattered dream you cannot justify
We’re gonna scream until we’re satisfied
What are we running for?
We’ve got the right to be angry
What are we running for?
When there’s no where we can run to anymore
Here Benetar addresses her enemy directly by condemning him/her for shattering her dream. And she lets him know our fight has just begun because we will no longer be silent and complicit. We will raise our voices till we’re satisfied, and we have justice. She reiterates a question she asks in the first stanza regarding why we’ve been waiting, but she also asks why we’re running. We’re stronger than our need to run away. What can our enemy do to us now? The damage has been done. There’s no need to flee. We have to face what we’ve been hiding from.
The fourth stanza the chorus is repeated, but she adds on to it:
We can’t afford to be innocent
Stand up and face the enemy
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible
And with the power of conviction
There is no sacrifice
It’s a do or die situation
We will be invincible
She adds, “And with the power of conviction, there is no sacrifice.” The conviction she feels is faith and assurance in her condemnation of her enemy and the ability to overtake him. Her mention of sacrifice connotes the idea that there is nothing left for the enemy to take away, there is nothing left to endure, nothing of which we can be stripped now. She’s done with sacrificing; she’s letting go now; she’s fighting the battle that at one time left her vulnerable.
She closes with the line: “We will be invincible.” We all have a battle to face, whether we run from it or choose to fight. If we choose to fight, victory is assured. We’ve been held down by our illnesses too long to suffer any more. It takes courge, but we’ve had enough now.
Fifth Stanza:
Won’t anybody help us?
What are we running for?
When there’s no where, no where we can run to anymore
Benetar asks again, “Won’t anybody help us?” Obviously the answer is no. We have to do this on our own. This is our fight and our victory to win.
She repeats the question from a previous stanza asking what we are running for. Why keep running? It’s a strategic question she poses to serve as a rallying cry, encouraging us to fight our monsters because we are out of options and places to go. We must battle because there is no where else we can run. It’s time to take action.
In Conclusion
As she sings, Benetar repeats seven times, “We will be invincible. For Benetar and all of us,
this win/lose game of life, we will be victorious. There is no other option. We can’t run anymore from our battles; we h
ave to face them. Most of us, especially me, have been running all our lives and not facing our enemies.
We don’t have to run anymore. We must be willing to come to a point where running is not an option, and there is no sacrifice too great to take back our power and fight our enemy. I believe we can all be invincible and face our demons. We have to want to own our power badly enough to fight what has tried to destroy us all these years.
I love to pump this song out of my speakers when I am feeling defeated and need a pick-me up. This song reminds
me of how I do not take my therapy as seriously as I should; how I don’t treat it with importance; how I run from what I need to talk about. If I’m going to stand up and face my enemies, I need to be more open in therapy.
We are forces to be reckoned with. We will be invincible.
I would love to hear from you:
- What music is on your recovery playlist?
- What do you do to pump you up for recovery?
- Do you plan on seeing Star Wars?
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