The first thing you learn is grievin' and loss 'Cause you can't return to the safe place you lost From your mother's womb into the chaos of a cold hospital room When you're a child, they say: Follow the rules And they send you to church, and they drop you at school And your little heart breaks as you're watchin' them both drive away And I cried on the side of the curb The panic set in, and it hurt But that's just the way of the world The way of the world As you're growin' up, you get faced with the truth That your parents are people and messed up like you And the child inside them is broken and still hurtin' too You get to the end when your time's almost done With your skin paper-thin and your bones givin' up From the very beginning, you've been goin' against the wind And your body goes back to the earth And your soul to the whole universe God, I hope that's the way that it works The way that it works From the very first moment it hurts 'Til the day that you're laid in the dirt Yeah, but that's just the way of the world The way of the world