"The Mirror" was initially inspired by a movie I saw on TV in 1985.

In the movie, the charismatic but enigmatic "hero" grew up in the slums and was a gang leader, but always had a conscience underneath. As the plot twists developed, it turned out he was adopted and his birth mother (who never gave up looking for him after being forced to give him up as a young girl) was a zillionaire. Once his birthright came to light, he cleaned his act up, moved into a new environment with his newfound birth mother, and ditched his old way of life which by necessity included the gang and his old girlfriend. Much of the movie dealt with the adjustments he made to his new environment and his newfound mother. Along the way, he also falls in love and gets engaged. The love story is seemingly almost complete with a happy ending. But not quite...

Meanwhile, in his absence, the old girlfriend takes over the gang, ratchets up the crime, then eventually freaks out and takes the "hero", his mother, and his fiancee hostage, after the "hero" tries to return to his old environment to "clean up/rehabilitate" the old gang, whose loyalties are now divided between their old gang leader and their new one.

The extended hostage scene was riveting to me, as the "hero" tries to talk his captor down, trying to convince her he still truly loves her, values her friendship, will do everything he can to help her, that she shouldn't throw her life away, that she's worthy of love, and her life is valuable. She, on the other hand, spends much of the time threatening them, trying to "save face" with the gang, feeling empowered with the gun, trying to decide who should be the recipient of the one bullet she has left.

Which would inflict the most pain?
Killing him?
His fiancee?
Or the newfound mother he never knew?

He eventually talks her down and the movie ends happily as the hostage situation is over and the cops move in. Presumably, the inevitable rehab will ensue after the movie is over, and as a bonus, maybe even the crime rate in the old neighborhood will go down...

As the lyrics developed, the "Mirror" was introduced into the proceedings and I came up with the idea that it should remain ambiguous as to whether the captor was threatening an actual captive/adversary while dealing with his own inner demons, or was just a Freddie Prince-type (I'm dating myself here) nut job with inner demons debating whether to off himself.

Unlike the movie, the song ends with the captor having apparently either killed the captive...
or himself...
or perhaps just his inner demons (The Mirror)...

Though the "gun" in the lyrics was supposed to be taken figuratively rather than literally, it seemed that the lyrics as originally written evoked too many violent images to be tenable for a Christian audience. (Not that I necessarily divide music into "Christian" and "secular" categories; I believe such distinctions can be meaningless and can depend on the subjectivity and more importantly the discernment of the author and the listener. I've come across plenty of "Christian" music that wasn't, and "secular" music that has pointed people towards the Creator. For an excellent essay on this from a Christian musician's/artist's perspective, click here: "A Christian's Art in the World".)

At any rate, it didn't fit with any of the Everlasting Arms material, and stood out lyrically from most of my other music. So while I liked the music a lot, the song remained on the shelf, relegated to remaining a piece of my musical past...

...until last year when I revisited it and somehow came up with the idea to turn the entire thing on its ear:

• The "aggressor" with the "gun" is now the hero, or the "believer".
  
• The "defender" is now the sin or temptation in the believer's life, manifested as either the "tempter" or the "accuser".
  
  

What amazed me was how little the lyrics had to be nudged to fit the new scenario. The concept of "The Mirror" now fit in with the "war within" against sin that a believer wages throughout his/her life.

Now it was "spiritual warfare", rather than a "murder story".

The piece was also extended by inserting a brand new musical section (from 5:50 to 8:50) which depicts the inner conflict and the struggle. A guitar solo was also added at the end (from 10:30 onward, the old ending was too abrupt), which depicts the inner peace and ultimate triumph.

As for the recording, while the story line will be FAR easier to follow if you read along with the lyrics, I nevertheless tried to differentiate between the two "characters" in the story by doing a few things:

• The "tempter/accuser" sounds like he's partially coming out of a tin can, or a phone line, to somewhat mimic the idea of him/them speaking in the "believer's" ear.
  
  
• Except at the very end (artistic license), when the "believer" is speaking to the "tempter/accuser", he's in a solo voice. When the "accuser/tempter" speaks, he/they are in multiple harmony voices, or even echoing voices at times... because the sins are many, legion even.
  
  
• When the "believer" is half talking to himself, the harmonies flit around as seemed musically appropriate.
  
  
• The two "voices" sometimes trade places between the left and right ear.
  
  
• As the believer is inundated with voices tempting and accusing him, it's up to the believer to find the "small still voice" of the Holy Spirit.

Though the music in places may sound a bit too "happy/pretty" for the subject matter, (even the harmonies and multiple voices of the accuser/tempter sound "prettier" than the solo voice of the "believer"), if one thinks about it, sometimes sin looks so enticing and appealing and well, pretty on the outside, even as it does damage and is ugly on the inside. Food for thought...

I've taken the step of including the lyrics here, as I believe it's helpful to have them to follow along.

Enjoy!

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