I'm reading these lyrics and the responses and I think that the surface has only barely been scratched. I would argue that this song is about perseverance. The message is extremely encouraging to me.
We can all figure out the story. The characters are caught in a vicious cycle. They recognize the difficulty we all experience in life. Life can be extremely dark. We can be disappointed, carry dark views of ourselves, and wonder if we will ever truly experience peace in the nights that seem to drag on incessantly. It's a feeling most if not all people experience at some point.
Feelings like these invoke our innate "fight or flight" response. The first old man in the story claims that he used to be foolish and played "an escapade just like you." Escapade (dictionary.com defines it as an escape from confinement or restraint)describes the multitude of people who tend to respond to the dilemmas of life by retreating into them and running from them in order to find the answers. In the end, the escapade is over, the dilemma never went away, and the only thing you can do is find the nearest tree and warn others from making the same mistake.
I think the message here is that in the midst of it, those who really triumph in life are those that aren't "afraid to do the things that I was supposed to do." The answer to the question is that one needs to pick themselves by the bootstraps and get going. If we look at these issues, most of the time we can figure out what needs to be done. Those that succeed do so in spite of the internal conflict and end up finding the answer to that conflict.
I see similar themes in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. Solomon looks at his life near the end and sees that nothing really matters in the grand scheme of eternity. Everything seems to be in vain. In the end, Solomon realizes that the answer is that we have been given our time on this earth and despite the hardships we must persevere in order to live a full life.
I really liked your interpretation, but I also understand that there is a feeling of redemption or completion in "playing the guitar" or just trying to make sense of the hard situations in life, some people never make the quest.
I really liked your interpretation, but I also understand that there is a feeling of redemption or completion in "playing the guitar" or just trying to make sense of the hard situations in life, some people never make the quest.
I'm reading these lyrics and the responses and I think that the surface has only barely been scratched. I would argue that this song is about perseverance. The message is extremely encouraging to me.
We can all figure out the story. The characters are caught in a vicious cycle. They recognize the difficulty we all experience in life. Life can be extremely dark. We can be disappointed, carry dark views of ourselves, and wonder if we will ever truly experience peace in the nights that seem to drag on incessantly. It's a feeling most if not all people experience at some point.
Feelings like these invoke our innate "fight or flight" response. The first old man in the story claims that he used to be foolish and played "an escapade just like you." Escapade (dictionary.com defines it as an escape from confinement or restraint)describes the multitude of people who tend to respond to the dilemmas of life by retreating into them and running from them in order to find the answers. In the end, the escapade is over, the dilemma never went away, and the only thing you can do is find the nearest tree and warn others from making the same mistake.
I think the message here is that in the midst of it, those who really triumph in life are those that aren't "afraid to do the things that I was supposed to do." The answer to the question is that one needs to pick themselves by the bootstraps and get going. If we look at these issues, most of the time we can figure out what needs to be done. Those that succeed do so in spite of the internal conflict and end up finding the answer to that conflict.
I see similar themes in the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. Solomon looks at his life near the end and sees that nothing really matters in the grand scheme of eternity. Everything seems to be in vain. In the end, Solomon realizes that the answer is that we have been given our time on this earth and despite the hardships we must persevere in order to live a full life.
Great song. M. Ward is a wise man. Hands down.
I really liked your interpretation, but I also understand that there is a feeling of redemption or completion in "playing the guitar" or just trying to make sense of the hard situations in life, some people never make the quest.
I really liked your interpretation, but I also understand that there is a feeling of redemption or completion in "playing the guitar" or just trying to make sense of the hard situations in life, some people never make the quest.