In an NPR Music performance this year, John Darnielle spoke briefly about how this song portrays the day-to-day struggles of mental illness (around the 51 minute mark: http://www.npr.org/event/music/148782993/the-mountain-goats-and-anonymous-4). "When you work every day in hospitals, you can become numb to the struggles of the people you're working with... [so] you try to keep that feeling with you, so that when you work, you never forget that you're trying to help people who have a hard time helping themselves."
In an NPR Music performance this year, John Darnielle spoke briefly about how this song portrays the day-to-day struggles of mental illness (around the 51 minute mark: http://www.npr.org/event/music/148782993/the-mountain-goats-and-anonymous-4). "When you work every day in hospitals, you can become numb to the struggles of the people you're working with... [so] you try to keep that feeling with you, so that when you work, you never forget that you're trying to help people who have a hard time helping themselves."