When I listen to this song I hear it as a variation on the theme explored in his other songs "A New Arrangement" and "The Joy in Discovery/ The Joy in Acceptance." This song, to me, is someone asking a person suffering from depression why they aren't trying to be happy. I've always been very curious as to whether Conor believes that depression can be overcome by choice or personal will, and, in his song, his answer seems to be no, and a criticism of those who believe that it can. He seems to equate the question of why a depressed person is not trying to be happy to why the sun is not trying to find a hole in the clouds; he seems to be saying that that's just not how it works, and the question itself is as ridiculous as it is insensitive.
On a less related note, my best friend and I recently had a conversation of sorts about this same topic; she said I had once told her to just try to be happy when she was depressed, and the bitterness in her voice when she said this sort of blew me away. She said sometimes she wanted to say to me, when she knew I was in a low spell, and the irony sort of hit me, because she had told me before after a two year relationship of mine had ended, "You should be trying harder to get over this." This song reminds me how depression is impossible to understand unless you're going through it, often even by those who have experienced themselves.
When I listen to this song I hear it as a variation on the theme explored in his other songs "A New Arrangement" and "The Joy in Discovery/ The Joy in Acceptance." This song, to me, is someone asking a person suffering from depression why they aren't trying to be happy. I've always been very curious as to whether Conor believes that depression can be overcome by choice or personal will, and, in his song, his answer seems to be no, and a criticism of those who believe that it can. He seems to equate the question of why a depressed person is not trying to be happy to why the sun is not trying to find a hole in the clouds; he seems to be saying that that's just not how it works, and the question itself is as ridiculous as it is insensitive.
On a less related note, my best friend and I recently had a conversation of sorts about this same topic; she said I had once told her to just try to be happy when she was depressed, and the bitterness in her voice when she said this sort of blew me away. She said sometimes she wanted to say to me, when she knew I was in a low spell, and the irony sort of hit me, because she had told me before after a two year relationship of mine had ended, "You should be trying harder to get over this." This song reminds me how depression is impossible to understand unless you're going through it, often even by those who have experienced themselves.
she wanted to say the same to me*
she wanted to say the same to me*