25th Anniversary - Childhood's End

From: steve.seitz@sherpa.com
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 98 15:24:57 -0800
Subject: 25th Anniversary - Childhood's End

Hola!

Today is the day, the 25th Anniversary of the last time the tune "Childhood's End" was played live. So while I have precious little time, here's my $0.02 on this, one of my favorite tunes:

Childhood's End

>You shout in your sleep.
>Perhaps the price is just too steep.
>Is your conscience at rest
>If once put to the test?

Essentially, "have you any regrets?" The funny thing about regret is we tend to regret those things we *didn't* do as opposed to the things that we *did* do.

>You awake with a start
>To just the beating of your heart.
>Just one man beneath the sky,
>Just two ears, just two eyes.

I heard a quote recently that went, "We're born alone, we die alone, everything else is just make believe." This quote also serves to highlight just how small we physically are amongst the rest of the world.

> You set sail across the sea
> Of long past thoughts and memories.
> Childhood's end, your fantasies
> Merge with harsh realities.

Here, I am reminded of 'No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun." I myself have often tried to "set sail across the sea of memory" to recall exactly when the fantasies of childhood merged with the the realities of everyday life. Carefree dreams blended inconspicuously with the burden of being of an adult. Note also Gilmour's use of a definite image (the sea) with an indefinite image (memories). It's one of Gilmour's favorite lyrical techniques (The rain fell slow, down on all the roofs of uncertainty)

> And then as the sail is hoist,
> You find your eyes are growing moist.
> All the fears never voiced
> Say you have to make your final choice.

The journey is made to the protagonist's youth. "All the fears never voiced" could be a reference to the pressures of the outside world causing one to realize their responsibilities of being an adult. The 'final choice' is likely then to be an admission to oneself that the aimless joy of Childhood simply must come to an end. It cannot be held forever, or else it becomes artifical and unreal.

> Who are you and who am I
> To say we know the reason why?
> Some are born; some men die
> Beneath one infinite sky.

I was profoundly struck by the beauty and breadth of the "Colours of Infinity" video that Dave contributed the soundtrack too. In this video, about the concept of Infinity and Mandelbrot's Set, one gets the amazing realization that there just may not be an end to how big or how small things can get. 'Infinite Resolution' In that sense, the sky may very well be 'infinite.' In this vastness of Infinity then, what is our place here? Why are we here? Are we nothing more than a collection of neurons laid out in a completely unique fractal set? Is self-awareness merely a by-product of evolution? Is philosophy just a rationalization for that which we do not understand?

> There'll be war, there'll be peace.
> But everything one day will cease.
> All the iron turned to rust;
> All the proud men turned to dust.

All the things we fret and worry about, of what do they matter in the grand cosmic schemes of things? How many projects turn out to be "half a page or scribbled lines?" But Childhood does not have to end if you make a difference in the life of a child.

> And so all things, time will mend.
> So this song will end.

"Time heals all wounds" or so they say. Until of course, we set sail across the sea, to long past thoughts and memories...

     ____/>
  ~~(___/           Beaker
    /> />          ...the Mad Mustang Maniac...

A Saucerful of Beaker :  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/4152