Then I'll Be Smiling

This is my favorite Matt song! I feel this way about quite few of my "friends." Kind of sad to feel so alone when you are surrounded by so many people.

Good Song...better meaning...at least in my eyes..To me this song is about a boy who thinks his friends are too deep in their ignorance yet dont care and dont do anything about it "They burrowed deeper into the ignorant Little lives they preferred" But then this kids like once i get to a better point in life where i know more...thats when ill be smiling because this is all too frustrating right now Then i take.. "Once I shed the whole of me" as him almost evolving like when a caterpillar does from their cacoon into a butterfly and better being so to speak Then.. "They litter me with small awareness' Then they ask if I'm good enough" As him saying that " his friends half full of half concerns" try and lace him with the same things but he doesnt follow it and they dont get why he wants something more out of life "They litter me with small awareness' Just to wake me up Why do the fools wake me up?" I think of this as them trying to distract him away from his dream of being a better person so why are these fools trying to wake him up from it and prevent such a positive dream.....

My favorite Matt Nathanson song by far. To me this song speaks very profoundly of a boy who is alienated by the ignorance of his family and peers. He is frustrated by the fact that he simply cannot bring himself to drop himself to their level to feel the blind happiness they seem to feel in their own little worlds. He is too attached to ideas of progress and of ambition, while they seem, in his eyes, to be happy the way they are. Therefore the chorus tells that in order for him to be happy, he would have to shed every ounce of who he truly is, a frustrating and almost impossible prospect for many.

I imagine a guy trying very hard to fix holes. I think that may be some kind of pitfall or trap that he sees as wrong. and he fumbles around, unable to ignore, trying to fix them. And his instinct to have ideas to fix holes...I feel these ideas lend him a kind of dignity. His his friends, on the other hand, are ignoring these holes blissfully. And although he feels betrayed, He envies also envies their freedom. His own instinct, though good intentioned, has failed.
I think it's just a phase. After he sorts it out he'll get his dignity back and, then HE WILL be smiling.