This Is Not Like Home

I like to think of this as the story of Canadian settlers coming in from Europe in the early days. They left behind poverty in hunger-stricken Ireland for a dream of opportunity in the new world, but what they found was hard work and a harsh climate. While they ultimately made better lives for themselves, it was not at all the dream they had seeked. For as long as they lived, they could never stop longing for their old countries.

It's easy to relate to this for any of us who have had dreams of leaving our dull lives behind, and just going away. We dream of it for ages, and when we finally can go, it's so much less than what we expected. So much so that we even miss home - it wasn't perfect but at least everything wasn't strange. Our dreams, as it were, get buried in snow.

On a higher level, "This Is Not Like Home" is about the fundamental impedance between our desires and reality, when it hits. We're never quite content with what we have; we are always haunted by secret desires, but if we finally get them, it's a sad anti-climax until the next dream builds. And so we are trapped forever by desire. Stranded and free.

This is one of my favorite Great Lake Swimmers songs. It reminds me of living out in the middle of nowhere.

This makes me think of starting out anew, leaving everything behind in search of that simple country life "wilderness wish" but as much as you think that you want it....it never feels like home.

i feel like this song is about the shortcomings of people.

Wanting to find some way of living, looking for a place to settle down but failing. The world itself isn't welcoming, and you learn to forget what you want, what you have wished for back when you yourself were wild like the world.