Parentheses

i love this song! i think she's trying to convince the person she's having a relationship with, who's this strong, macho type, that it's okay to be sensitive in front of her. i like how she uses 'parentheses' to describe their relationship. like two "I"'s that bend toward each other, in between is this space they share, for their eyes only.

i totally agree with you. this song is one of my favorites on the album. it's so sweet! she's just trying to reassure this person that whatever feelings they want to express is great and shouldn't be supressed!

This is the cutest song ever.

I agree that the song is about her speaking to a gy who thinks he needs to be strong and she is saying that he can be sensetive. The deli aisle thing my friend told me. She said it's about the meat and it makes him sad and basically she says he can cry about it but it's worded as he is crying.

This is one of my favorite songs.

It's beautiful.

But I don't get the deli aisle thing...still. Like, he's vegan? Or something? And seeing dead animals makes him sad?

haha, rainingpaperlilies.

"hes vegan?" i dont get it either, but that was a great/funny guess.

this song is so cute.

Maybe the "deli isle" quote is a cute reference to the first couple of lines. She's saying that most belief systems teach you to keep everything to yourself ("keep one's goods on one's own shelf"), but if there's something on your shelf ("in the deli isle"--maybe even referring to machismo and meat) that you need to let out (get off the shelf), then it's OK--she'll help you do it.

I kind of thought the deli aisle thing was more metaphorical, as in, it's ok even to cry about the simple small things that may get to you. Not a strict reference to an opposition to meat.

On the deli aisle bit: I agree with sj_sands, it's more metaphorical than anything. And I think it ties in with her use of "baby" - seriously, who hasn't seen a kid burst into tears at the store? She's saying it's ok if he needs to let out emotion (even at the most ordinary times, like kids do) That's why she says "You're not a baby if you feel the world. All of the babies can feel the world. That's why they cry." I took it as another reference to him being a bit closed off from the world, and her telling him it's ok to be more emotive and such, not to be so... stoic perhpas? Hm, hope that makes sense.

This song can be viewed as the separation and consolidation of mind and body. The first verse is about newage/buddhist/existentialist view of the I, the self.. meaning the mind. It even has a vague reference to yoga, "with the feet on the ground and the head to the sky". In the chorus, the lyrics go on to talk about this parentheses, but although you get a sense of two people, you also get a sense that there is only one person: "There's plenty space to encase whatever weird way my mind goes." Kind of like, her mind and her body. Where her mind goes is within the parentheses and does not exist in the physical world. The physical arms are the parentheses that cradle this person, baby, or herself, with understanding and compassion.

Crying in a deli isle is not macho at all.. A very emotional person would cry at whatever they experience there. In this song it is very sweet and unconditional with the "of course i'll wrap my arms around you and walk you outside" (in the above lyrics it says 'you know' instead of 'of course'), and again the arms cradle with understanding only the more physical, neutral part of the self could provide.