To me, this song is about achieving something that few others have. The verse about thinking you have the last laugh is often not true as the song states. Unfortunately, what you may have as a result of your hard work and achievement is ruins. I think the ruins can be anything, but the song refers to love. So I could imagine someone who has achieved what he or she thought would be great love, only to find there was nothing there. Now, there is a race among the ruins. A race to get divorced, a race to keep the kids, a race among a destroyed relationship. I think the jester to the clown reference could be referring to the judges in our courts. Perhaps the husband or wife has to play jester to judge (who are often just clowns in gowns) in their race among the ruins.
Either way, this song touches me deeply, not for the love part, but for the achievement part. Much of what we seek to achieve through our efforts turns out to be less fruitful than we first imagined and all of that work is ruins.
To me, this song is about achieving something that few others have. The verse about thinking you have the last laugh is often not true as the song states. Unfortunately, what you may have as a result of your hard work and achievement is ruins. I think the ruins can be anything, but the song refers to love. So I could imagine someone who has achieved what he or she thought would be great love, only to find there was nothing there. Now, there is a race among the ruins. A race to get divorced, a race to keep the kids, a race among a destroyed relationship. I think the jester to the clown reference could be referring to the judges in our courts. Perhaps the husband or wife has to play jester to judge (who are often just clowns in gowns) in their race among the ruins.
Either way, this song touches me deeply, not for the love part, but for the achievement part. Much of what we seek to achieve through our efforts turns out to be less fruitful than we first imagined and all of that work is ruins.