Broken Horses

by Brandi Carlile

The first song I heard from the album was “Every Time I Hear That Song.” Phil had written it. I was so moved by it. A line in the third verse said: Now that’s twice you broke my heart now The first was way back when, And to know you’re still unhappy Only makes it break again. It put a lump in my throat so bad that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to sing it. I was there; I knew what he was talking about and it made me proud to be his friend. The way that love never ends. Sure, the feeling ends, but the sheer kindness of it and the honor and the forgiveness part of love never should. I should address the word “forgiveness.” It’s got a bad rap. It’s become patronizing, whitewashed, upper-middle-class, a suburban kind of word in our culture that is used more often to vilify than to redeem. It’s #blessed for the twenty-first century. I hate this because to the divine, it’s radical. This word sticks in my craw the way the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin” does.