“And I will try… to fix you.”. I was listening to a rendition of… | by by Your Grace | Sep, 2025

I was listening to a rendition of Coldplay’s Fix You when a question popped into my head.

As I dug into the meaning of the song, I realized its premise rests on a promise being ‘fixed’ by love, by light, by someone’s unwavering support through life’s hardest seasons. Beautiful, yes. But it begs a harder question: do we, as human beings, actually need fixing? I don’t think so.

For starters, I have a problem with the word “fix” itself. We fix chairs, phones, and leaky faucets, objects that break. But are we broken? Do we really belong in the same category as things? I don’t think so. I’ve written about brokenness before, but I don’t see it as something that demands repair.

Flaws don’t make us faulty, they make us human, and that’s more than okay.

We’re flawed, yes, and there is no need to “fix” us. But does that mean we should stay exactly as we are? Never moving forward, never growing, never shifting? Not at all. Too often we confuse acceptance with stagnation. Accepting our flaws does not mean freezing in place, it means acknowledging who we are while still choosing to evolve.

We are not objects in need of repair. We are living beings in need of recalibration.

Progress is not about erasing imperfections. It is about learning from them, adapting, and allowing ourselves to transform. The goal is not to become flawless, it is to keep moving, keep unfolding, keep becoming, don’t stop there.

There is an irony in that, isn’t there? To accept who you are, while still striving to become a better version of yourself.

And here is another wrinkle, in the song, ‘fix you’ implies someone else does the work, while us just stand there, passive, like a broken chair waiting for its carpenter. But humans do not work that way. We carry history, will, and choice. Healing or growth cannot be done to us. It has to be done with us.

That is why language matters. ‘Fixing’ reduces us to faults. Better words might be heal, learn, evolve. Not repair, but renewal. These words honor us as people. They remind us we are not broken, we are simply becoming.
So no, I do not believe humans need to be “fixed.” What we need is space to grow. What we need are people who do not see us as problems, but as living, changing beings.

And maybe that is what Coldplay meant all along. Not to literally fix you, but to stand beside you in the dark, holding the light steady, until you find your own way home.

Only four men know for sure: Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, and Will Champion.