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