Jimmy Eat World are extremely gifted not only for their musical talent but for their ability to write deep meaning ful lyrics. In this particular song, I think Jim (or whoever it may be) is speaking very metaphorically here.
Although he's drving back from some sort of social event, when he speaks of "driving" it's mainly his thought process. It is very apparent there has been a breakup with a girl at this event and he's now leaving the scene. However when I look at this particular lyric:
On a Sunday she thought it through.
Now as I drive back, there's thiry-six less hours I have to change the course I send myself.
Live with that.
"Drive back" is the writer distancing himself from something. What I'm saying here is that it could be something as deep as marriage. To me, he and his fiance split ways 36 hours before they're about to wed. When he says that's "36 less hours i have to change the course i send myself", means that that's 36 less hours he has to prepare and spend time on his wedding. The course he's speaking of his life and how things would have been different had he made the comittment. As he's driving away from the life he could have had, he begins to question if what he did was right:
Because when the rides done, the hopes that you have carried, they fall out from your hands back to the ground.
Live with that.
He knows all the hopes that he's carried for so long, now have to be let go, and he's knows once he loosens his grip on them, he will in all probability, never see them again. As time goes by, he begins to realize that eveything will in turn sort itself out:
Learn as the drugs leave.
Learn as you lose it.
You will.
The "drugs" he's speaking of are not literally drugs. I think they're emotions, butterflies, all the chemicals that have been swirling around in his brain. He's confused and as time passes he slowly sorts things out and as he does, all the emotions slowly fade away and things have become much clearer for him as noted in the last (and my favorite) lyric:
The haze clears from your eyes on a Sunday.
The "haze" was his blindness to the choice he made and as time passed the "haze" slowly lifted and he was able to understand what he had done and now is prepared to face any consequences that may arise from it.
Like I said, this is just my personal interpretation and is probably way off of what Jim was trying to imply when he wrote it. In any case, this is how I see the song, and no matter what the true meaning of the song is, it is definetly still the best on Clarity and perhaps the best Jimmy Eat World song to date.
Jimmy Eat World are extremely gifted not only for their musical talent but for their ability to write deep meaning ful lyrics. In this particular song, I think Jim (or whoever it may be) is speaking very metaphorically here.
Although he's drving back from some sort of social event, when he speaks of "driving" it's mainly his thought process. It is very apparent there has been a breakup with a girl at this event and he's now leaving the scene. However when I look at this particular lyric:
On a Sunday she thought it through. Now as I drive back, there's thiry-six less hours I have to change the course I send myself. Live with that.
"Drive back" is the writer distancing himself from something. What I'm saying here is that it could be something as deep as marriage. To me, he and his fiance split ways 36 hours before they're about to wed. When he says that's "36 less hours i have to change the course i send myself", means that that's 36 less hours he has to prepare and spend time on his wedding. The course he's speaking of his life and how things would have been different had he made the comittment. As he's driving away from the life he could have had, he begins to question if what he did was right:
Because when the rides done, the hopes that you have carried, they fall out from your hands back to the ground. Live with that.
He knows all the hopes that he's carried for so long, now have to be let go, and he's knows once he loosens his grip on them, he will in all probability, never see them again. As time goes by, he begins to realize that eveything will in turn sort itself out:
Learn as the drugs leave. Learn as you lose it. You will.
The "drugs" he's speaking of are not literally drugs. I think they're emotions, butterflies, all the chemicals that have been swirling around in his brain. He's confused and as time passes he slowly sorts things out and as he does, all the emotions slowly fade away and things have become much clearer for him as noted in the last (and my favorite) lyric:
The haze clears from your eyes on a Sunday.
The "haze" was his blindness to the choice he made and as time passed the "haze" slowly lifted and he was able to understand what he had done and now is prepared to face any consequences that may arise from it.
Like I said, this is just my personal interpretation and is probably way off of what Jim was trying to imply when he wrote it. In any case, this is how I see the song, and no matter what the true meaning of the song is, it is definetly still the best on Clarity and perhaps the best Jimmy Eat World song to date.