The Postal Service, "A Tattered Line of String"
Remember how bleak everything seemed in 2003? How the very thought of getting up each morning caused near paralysis as you mentally cataloged the humiliations you’d be forced the face during the course of the day, and how even attempting to think about the future plunged you into a slough of sorrow dug so deep down that the mere contemplation of what you’d need do to somehow start digging your way out proved so exhausting that you eventually decided it was easier not to consider it at all? So you put your head down and went about your life and here we are ten years later and now when you look back at 2003 it is with a sense of shame and spite: shame because you cannot believe that you thought things were so difficult back then, when everything was actually remarkably easy; spite because you hate the you of ten years ago, for whom each day was actually a marvelous jaunt through a magical forest compared with the grim march through fire you now begin barefoot each cursed moment your eyes open and you find that, despite your dreams, you are still here. If you are now in that place where you skip shaving most days because you don’t trust yourself around a razor, I have some good news: It’s not going to last forever. You will eventually die. I can’t say when, but rest assured it is coming. Until then, listen to this new song from the Postal Service. It sounds just like 2003! For three minutes you can trick yourself into thinking that life is only marginally miserable again. Enjoy!