Cleveland

i can't believe no one has commented on this song! in my opinion it's probably one of the best jewel songs out there. it's about distance, but the want for her and her significant other to be together. "it's just an inch from me to you, depending on what map you use." i love this song. :x

Its also about not worrying about the future, about how things will work themselves out. "Traffic cops will compromise"

the line "It's just an inch from me to you Depending on what map you use" might refer to them being physically close, but not mentally...

princessariel56, i had never thought about that lyric that way before! I'd always assumed the song was written while Jewel was on the road, touring, away from the person she loved, so that the lyric was a direct reference to the physical distance between them, but i really like that idea. I still think jewel meant it the other way but your interpretation gave the lyric a whole new meaning for me. Thanks!

i'm from cleveland.

:D

This is a great song. I think the "it's just an inch from me to you, depending on what map you use." is simply about physical distance in a relationship--its not so bad that they are seperated because they are still close emotionally. It goes with the rest of the verse: how problems look small from the perspective of above.

Its too bad she made this into a semi-country song. In earlier versions I heard this as a folk song that I like much better. There were lots of songs that she did on Perfectly Clear that were originally folk/pop songs that she just adapted to western style by adding a twang here and there like an extra decoration. Undernieth her style was still the same. Thats why it was such a pity--not only because I'm not a Country fan but because it didn't come off as authentic. Rather it was something neither here nor there.

To me, the last verse sounds like she's in a fight with her boyfriend. They're having problems in their relationship, the emotional distance feels great, but she wants to make up with him. She wants her and her boyfriend to gain a perspective where they see the problems in their relationship as small and see the emotional closeness they share.

"Depending on which map you use" refers to her uncertainty that he is willing to see things from the perspective she wants, willing to pilot that plane with her. He might still see their problems as huge and the distance between them great. She's reminding him he has the choice to see things differently, to see their fights as pointless and to see his fears (of commitment? of whatever they might be fighting over) as petty.