Dishes

This is a very personal song for me. I'm not sure if my interpretation of the song is accurate, but this is what it means to me.

It's about a man who has always wanted to do something amazing. Not just wanting to be famous, but wanting to make a major contribution to the world (like Jesus... even though I'm an atheist). But he ends up just being like any other man, with nothing special about him. And he's kind of processing that and trying to be at peace with that.

To me, washing the dishes refers several things. One, it represents the responsibilities he's had in his life that prevented him from doing that amazing thing he had always dreamed of doing. It also refers to him continuing to commit himself to those responsibilities after his dream had died. And it also provides the imagery of a man who maybe has given up and has resolved to being just a man who washes the dishes.

Since he feels like he was never able to make that great contribution to the world. He does what he can to contribute to the people in his life. Offering to read a story to someone he loves or providing them some light with something as little as a match (because that's the best he can do) are the little things he does. He realizes he can't make that great contribution to the world, but he knows he can do these little things. And that's why he does them.

The lines in the song that really touch me are the ones about not touching the stars. He wants to be able to touch the stars. But he doesn't see himself as someone who can or maybe even deserves to. And he's accepted he's just like everyone else on this Earth.

And the line about "being happy just to be alive" refers to trying to appreciate what we have. Just having the opportunity to exist is an amazing thing. And realizing that being alive is a blessing has allowed him to appreciate what he's got and make the best of it ("anything's possible"). If he dwells on what he wasn't able to achieve, and doesn't appreciate the blessing of life and the opportunity it brings, he won't be able to see some of the great things he can still do. And he doesn't have to settle for being an ordinary man that just stays home to wash the dishes.

Like I said, this song is very personal to me. It makes me think about how I've felt as a person who has dreamed about making a major contribution to the world since I was a young boy. I'm sure I'm projecting a lot of my own life experiences into how I see this song. But my interpretation of the song and how I relate to it is why this song is so special to me.

Before I start my babble, I love the line about touching the stars.

OK, here I go. I think that roughly translated, it's like "I'm not perfect. I'm not the best partner, the best lover, the best person, but I'm me. This is who I am, and I'll do everything I can to make our life together good."

What do you think? Lol.♥

This song is an incredible metaphore from Jarvis. It's about realizing that at a certain age you are not the human you would have like to be. When he sings about the water into wine, it refers in transforming his own life into something else. Then you look at the mirror, and you just 'stay home and do the dishes'.

Lovely song this. I love the bit about never touching the stars. It seems hopeful in a dire situation. Or it could just be that Jarvis realised that he had the same initials as Jesus and thought it was mildly interesting.

I agree with all the comments here.

The song also resonates with my experience of the tension involved with being in a relationship with someone who really believed in god while you are a complete atheist.

You can't offer them the comfort of agreeing with them that when we die we will live on because you just don't believe it and that frightens them because a conception of death as nothing is scary to them. But the only comforts you can give them are earthly. You care about their fear of death but at the same time wish you could make them see it your way.

Also, Jarvis treats the subject with humour and pathos whilst maintaining a sensitivity towards religion. Lovely, truly lovely.

I think this song is about wanting to do anything and everything for that one person and realizing that even love doesnt enable you to perform literal miracles.I think that the song is about letting go of the idealization of the power of love and accepting that small acts (reading stories,washing dishes, lighting up a cigarette) are the most meaningful thing one can do for others.

Agree, it's lovely. The melancholy on this song, and also A Little Soul, gets me every time.

Loads of references to the God-man Jesus here:

-'The same initials' -Thirty three is thought to be Jesus' age when he suffered death for us and came out the other side -One of the most famous of his miracles was turning water into wine -Bearing a cross is what he told his followers that they all must do, as well as doing it himself

And if you like, there's the references to earth and heaven, story-telling (the parables) and light ('I am the Light of the World'). But maybe I'm pushing a bit too hard here.

I agree with others that this is mainly about Jarvis' getting to the prime of his life and realising that it's mostly quite ordinary, but goodness is still possible in unspectacular ways.