Ring of Fire

I just watched "Walk the Line" about Johnny Cash. Gerald rented it and I went over to the house and watched it with him and Mary Jo. Cash had it pretty rough when he was young.He started off as a poor kid from Arkansas and he ended up in the County Music Hall of Fame.

He always had this image of brooding darkness. He never seemed to smile. I am sure some of that was to promote his "man in black" image. But for him to come up with that image in the first place shows that he had a deep dark place in his soul. I know that "Ring of Fire" is about love and burning passion, but somehow the words have a different meaning for me. The original meaning of a consuming love makes me think of Frances and how I felt when she left me. But the song also describes how I feel since my face was scarred and my life was changed overnight.

I read that one time Johnny Cash attempted to commit suicide while under the heavy influence of drugs. He was in this cave and descended deeper into the cave, trying to lose himself and "just die". He was exhausted and at his emotional wits end. He passed out on the floor of the cave and when he came to he said he felt God's presence in his heart and managed to struggle out of the cave by following a faint light and slight breeze. To him, it was his own rebirth.

Sometimes I feel like I cannot go on any longer. I feel like I have no future. I would just like to go to a dark place and quietly go to sleep and never wake up. I want to escape that burning ring of fire.

I fell into a burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down and the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire
The ring of fire

And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire
The ring of fire
The ring of fire
The ring of fire

Ring of Fire youtube video