I Can't Stop Thinking About You

I read the theme of the album is migrant travelers; people sadly wrenched from all they hold familiar by war. 244 million people left their home countries according to 2015 stats. 65.3 million people are thought to be refuges on the move in 2016, many of them engaging in desperate efforts. Naturally all of this movement rips families apart. Loved ones are lost and many families and friends will not be reunited.
I hung on the lyrics for this song “I don’t care if you exist,” thinking this suggests the sheer desperation of people looking for loved ones while entertaining the sinking feeling that the ones they seek may be dead. I don’t care. I just need to know. Alive or dead, please let me find you or news of you. You permeate my thoughts.
War. It’s painful, debilitating, destructive and frightening. It’s hard to digest and yet perhaps it’s an integral part of nature that reshapes our world. Granted it shifts so many from their homes but the migration will no doubt color our future. It seems ironic to see some factions warring in a vain attempt to preserve a current political and religious regime, little realizing that their efforts are serving to reimagine what they thought they were protecting. Just as earthquakes, thunderstorms and volcanic eruptions restructure our world, so does war. I’m not cool with it, but I’m beginning to understand it. A little. My heart goes out to those ripped from their normal and I hope all loved ones who wish to be found, are.

The previous comment about war refugees is not without merit. But I think the meaning of this song goes deeper - and broader - than that. I think this song is about the search for meaning in life.

Sting himself had this to say:

“It’s about the obsession of a writer who every morning faces a blank page and he wonders what on earth he’s going to fill it with.

The analogy I use is of somebody hunting in the snow. You’re never quite sure whether anything is there or not.

So, you’re looking for a road, a pathway, a character, a muse, a romantic muse, philosophical muse, a spiritual muse, a story, anything. But you’re not guaranteed to find it. So it’s about that obsession."

That comment fits with my interpretation of the song as a search for meaning in life, whether that meaning is God, or love, or a personal philosophy. I think it could certainly apply to war refugees. But I think it's universal enough that it could apply to anyone looking for meaning in a sometimes meaningless-seeming world.

Entertaining the interesting muse, story, idea, pathway idea, I’m just unsure about the line “I don’t care if you exist,” but perhaps it’s a bit like the 10cc line “I’m not in love, so don’t forget it. It’s just a silly phase I’m going through.” Right. A frustrated response to that obsession. So the muse, idea, story, pathway, in fantasy, might look up and say, from Coldplay’s X and Y, " Trying hard to speak and fighting with my weak hand, driven to distraction, so part of the plan.” Perhaps with luck, the muse, story, idea, pathway eventually returns, hopefully not to an empty house.
Lyrics, like fiction, are fun to muse around with.

I agree with all the refugee stuff, and it might also be about reuniting with a friend from your childhood, but I feel like it could also be interpreted as trying to find someone to love.