Tomorrow I’ll be singing at an event for Relay for Life. Relay for Life represents “the hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those who face cancer will be supported, and that one day cancer will be eliminated.”
My song ‘Paper Chase’ was written about a brave, little warrior battling cancer, and since I’ll be singing it tomorrow night, I’m going to take the chance to give you a couple behind-the-scenes of this song.
‘Paper Chase’ has four characters in it. A brave, little boy who dreams of great things, the mom who fears for her son’s life, the boy’s older sister, and the boy’s little brother. Writing this song, the older sister and the little brother became two of my favorite people. I love their complete confidence that their warrior-brother is going to be okay. He’s going to get better. The whole song goes back and forth between fear of the unknown and this stronger-than-hope belief.
There is a line in the song that goes “torn by the gold and gray, our little guy won’t quit”. The “gold” and “gray” is a reference to awareness ribbon colors. A gold awareness ribbon is a symbol for childhood cancer, and a gray awareness ribbon is a symbol for brain cancer awareness. This is the only hint in the song as to what exactly the warrior-brother is up against.
Where did the title come from?
There is a wonderful story called The Railway Children, and in a scene of this story a group of boys are chasing a paper trail. They’re running as fast as they can to see where the trail leads and to find whoever is leaving it for them to chase.
In this song, a little boy is fighting for his life, but he still dreams–big, fantastic dreams and little, everyday dreams. He’s chasing after life with all the strength and enthusiasm he can spare. He has claimed life as an adventure, and this song is an invitation for you to live your life like that too. Chasing dreams. Chasing a full life.
The inspiration for this song is a real boy fighting in real life. His name is Chase, and I wanted to work his name into the fabric of this song.
-Brittany