Thanks for pointing out the link with the other Tull song "Wondering Again" and reproduction, this has really helped. However I feel your interpretation is missing a great point within the lines:
"We are our own saviours
as we start both our hearts beating life into each other"
I never thought of this song as being about intercourse, maybe because english is not my first language. What this means to me is that you give your lover a meaning in life and the lover gives you this meaning in return (a reason to exist). This is emphasized by Ian's "We are our own saviours", as if we had to be saved from the lack of sense in life.
"Wondering aloud, will the years treat us well?" seems spoken so softly, so lightly that this doesn't even remotely sound like an important question, but the fact that it is the only question aside from "how we feel today" could also mean that Ian considers this an important matter, but it does not need to be answered as what really matters in this song is the feeling of the moment.
"Wondering Again"'s reference to infancy might be a sign of Ian maturing and now considering having kids as a new meaning in life, which is certainly a change in thoughts that many adults experience. It sounds to me as the appendage to this song, which is focusing on the present, the "now" and the feeling, and representing the future and carrying a bit of a hopeful message.
Remember Ian has a tradition of singing lightly about very heavy topics, see "Cheap Day Return", so this could seem like a feelgood song and carry a second meaning, which is according to my interpretation surprisingly optimistic in this song (as opposed to many other songs by Jethro Tull).
...and it's only the giving that makes you what you are...
Maybe an opening to the infant thing in "Wondering again", or just Anderson's two cents about individualism that is the main caracteristic of modern and post-modern eras as opposed to his vision of life shared with somebody else.
Thanks for pointing out the link with the other Tull song "Wondering Again" and reproduction, this has really helped. However I feel your interpretation is missing a great point within the lines: "We are our own saviours as we start both our hearts beating life into each other" I never thought of this song as being about intercourse, maybe because english is not my first language. What this means to me is that you give your lover a meaning in life and the lover gives you this meaning in return (a reason to exist). This is emphasized by Ian's "We are our own saviours", as if we had to be saved from the lack of sense in life. "Wondering aloud, will the years treat us well?" seems spoken so softly, so lightly that this doesn't even remotely sound like an important question, but the fact that it is the only question aside from "how we feel today" could also mean that Ian considers this an important matter, but it does not need to be answered as what really matters in this song is the feeling of the moment. "Wondering Again"'s reference to infancy might be a sign of Ian maturing and now considering having kids as a new meaning in life, which is certainly a change in thoughts that many adults experience. It sounds to me as the appendage to this song, which is focusing on the present, the "now" and the feeling, and representing the future and carrying a bit of a hopeful message.
Remember Ian has a tradition of singing lightly about very heavy topics, see "Cheap Day Return", so this could seem like a feelgood song and carry a second meaning, which is according to my interpretation surprisingly optimistic in this song (as opposed to many other songs by Jethro Tull).
...and it's only the giving that makes you what you are... Maybe an opening to the infant thing in "Wondering again", or just Anderson's two cents about individualism that is the main caracteristic of modern and post-modern eras as opposed to his vision of life shared with somebody else.