The One Who Knows Lyrics
And you're the dream come true
And if I had the world to give
I'd give it all to you.
I'll take you to the mountains
I will take you to the sea
I'll show you how this life became
A miracle to me.
but take my hand until that day
So when they ask how far love goes
When my job's done, you'll be the one who knows.
Will be the hardest one
I will watch you struggle on
For the answers come
But I won't make it harder
I'll be there to cheer you up
I'll shine the light that guides you down
The road you're walking on
but take my hand until that day
So when they ask how far love goes
When my job's done, you'll be the one who knows.
Before you leave this home
When I teach your heart to trust
As I will teach my own
But sometimes I will ask the moon
Where it shined upon you last
And shake my head and let me say
It all went by so fast
but take my hand until that day
So when they ask how far love goes
When my job's done, you'll be the one who knows.
Dar Williams said in a 1/28/07 concert, that the song was written to honor the relationships she had with all of the women that had opened themselves to "the fundamental laws of childhood" in raising her -- her mother, grandmother, teachers, aunts, neighbors, etc.
She then made everyone laugh by adding: "Of course, that's before I actually became a mother. There are (pauses to think) moments like that. I try to remind myself of them. Sometimes I even sing the song."
She then told a tale of her little boy "acting insane" in a restaurant. She worried that if she "was too harsh he'd become a sociopath" but thanks to the backlash against permissive parenting, if she "wasn't firm enough, he'd also become a sociopath"... On top of it, some fans had noticed her, so she was also fretting that they'd "run back saying 'that Dar Williams SEEMS really nice, but I saw her and she's really bada**'!"