Bruce Springsteen once said his job is simply to ride into town and tell everybody to keep going. This exquisite, simple little song is like that, reminding us to turn mistakes into gold, burn dark holes into the memories that haunt us. I love the succinct poetry of “finding direction magnetically”—how we are drawn across the world by this unseen force that courses through the very center of the Earth. We speak of having an internal compass, that pull of belonging that knows, deep in our core, what is true and good, if only we can be attentive to it.

“Rise,” written and performed by Eddie Vedder for the film Into the Wild, 2007.

This post is part of Music 100, a love letter to songs. 100 words on 100 songs in 100 days, running from Groundhog Day to 4th of July, 2025.

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