Ra!

Ra!

Ra!

(To know what comes after this is to be the first of the Good Looks.)

There has been a significant stir of controversy surrounding Aaron's use of the word ‘RA’ in this work. Fans wonder, "Is he speaking of the Egyptian Sun God?" or, "Is this an ode to cheering itself?" I offer some other food for thought. Halfway thru the first portion of ‘RA!’, the only portion in which Aaron speaks, Ben reverses the order of his chord progression. Try reversing the letters of the word RA and you are left with AR. Add a silent 'e' and you find an entirely new word, "ARE." Though short, this word has a number of implications. First and foremost, it assumes existence. The sentence, “They ARE happy.” first implies that “They” exist, and second, shows that ‘They’ are ‘happy’. Furthermore, the use of the word ‘ARE’ presupposes the existence of more than one thing. Otherwise, the word ‘IS’ would be used. So we have established that, given we are on the right track, Aaron is trying to establish the existence of at least two entities. The real mystery at hand, then, is the identity of these entities. Perhaps Aaron is referring to people who are most important to his life. Or maybe the entities are something more abstract, such as concepts of truth, justice, and piety. It is this type of question that makes ‘RA!’ so very interesting and mysterious indeed. Fans will surely ponder Aaron’s secret meanings for generations to come.

I should note that it is possible, though very unlikely, that Aaron doesn’t mean anything at all by the word ‘RA’. When one considers the expansive and unknown subliminal levels of the human mind, however, the possibility that Aaron’s words are meaningless seems very small.

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