Temporary Ground

On a floating lily island Moving over slowly sideways Rest the temporary creatures Spending all of their days

Waiting for the floor to Buckle down below their belts Crashing into yet another Drifting continental shelf

We're nothing more than temporary creatures inhabiting a constantly shifting and changing planet that could open up and eat us at any moment.

Moving without motion Screaming without sound Across an open ocean Lying there on temporary ground

This makes me think the song was written on an airplane. Just in general we're always moving, even when sitting still, in our natural functions and rhythms and planetary orbit.

Temporary ground in this context makes me think of high and low tides and how ocean levels are changing.

The old explorers had it easy They discovered nothing new But returned on home with answers Of sad existent clues

All the creatures have it hard now Nothing but God is left to know And why he left us all here hanging With an illusion of a home.

The dichotomy of the ease of the old explorers and difficulty of modern folks is playful because it's completely counterintuitive. We can hop on an airplane and go anywhere where they had to endure long ocean or land voyages into uncharted terrain. I know there's a lot more to discover in this world beyond religion, but he makes a good point.

LoserNo1's version of the lyrics is more accurate than what is currently posted.

Temporary Ground is about mortality and the ephemeral nature of reality. As Heraclitus said in ancient times, "You can never step in the same river twice." The universe is constantly in flux, which leaves us self-conscious creatures in a constant state of uncertainty and doubt. Yet at the same time, this perpetual change is the source of beauty, curiosity, surprise, artistry, invention, and all the things that give life meaning.

The ending hints at a more cynical direction, stating that "the old explorers had it easy" because there was so much still to be discovered (although none of it truly "new" as there is nothing new under the sun). Now with all our science and technology we have nothing left to discover except the ultimate cause of reality itself, which may finally reveal our quaint notions of being at home in the universe as nothing more than an illusion.

Powerful stuff.

One thing I know for sure is that Jack White was inspired to write this song by seeing huge lily pads, 6-feet or even more in diameter, in South America. I think the lyrics represent the fragile state our world is now in - and how fragile (and most probably well on the way to completely destroyed) our world will be in the coming years. For the life desperately clinging to it, that is. Hence, we are on temporary ground. This is just a quickie comment, I'll post more ideas I have about this when I have time!