Story behind the song, as explained by Brian Vander Ark after so many people asked him (paraphrased from a line-by-line explanation).
We all think we know everything when we're young. I realized I didn't know shit until I was 36. "Stop a baby's breath, and a shoe full of rice, no." Make her have an abortion. You get rice in your shoe from weddings, so stop the wedding too. But I wouldn't be held responsible because she was trying to seduce me. It's not my fault she fell in love. What was I thinking back then? Who am I to put a girl though that? Why was I unable to compromise? Guilty feelings. But we were just kids. Let it go. We all make mistakes. My best friend needed to get away after what happened, his girlfriend is my ex. So his girl is in effect, my girl, the same girl who had an abortion, and she kills herself. He feels as guilty as I do about the abortion and death. We rarely spoke after the incident - we just tried to forget it. We never spoke of her or the fact that we can't have a decent relationship with anyone since then. No matter how careful you might be, there are other perils out there.
The girl is real, the abortion is real. The death is not. It's poetic license to make the story more interesting.
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We all think we know everything when we're young. I realized I didn't know shit until I was 36. "Stop a baby's breath, and a shoe full of rice, no." Make her have an abortion. You get rice in your shoe from weddings, so stop the wedding too. But I wouldn't be held responsible because she was trying to seduce me. It's not my fault she fell in love. What was I thinking back then? Who am I to put a girl though that? Why was I unable to compromise? Guilty feelings. But we were just kids. Let it go. We all make mistakes. My best friend needed to get away after what happened, his girlfriend is my ex. So his girl is in effect, my girl, the same girl who had an abortion, and she kills herself. He feels as guilty as I do about the abortion and death. We rarely spoke after the incident - we just tried to forget it. We never spoke of her or the fact that we can't have a decent relationship with anyone since then. No matter how careful you might be, there are other perils out there.
The girl is real, the abortion is real. The death is not. It's poetic license to make the story more interesting.
From SongFacts.Com
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