Lyric discussion by soicat 

Cover art for Whole Wide World lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

Only a child would hang from a tree by one hand. He's outside of the house to avoid the conflict inside it, and shuts down the adult voices - think Dance Music, "so this is what the volume knob's for" - when he begins to hear them. He faces the future, its challenges and possibilities, alone, but with the hubris of youth.

I really like this interpretation. I wrote a novel length comment drawing on my experience with my mom's suicide attempt, but it was just...well, even I would be all "tl;dr" so I held it back. But I'm sure you can imagine how it would have gone like.