Even the closest star to Earth (besides the Sun) would take 4.5 years, traveling at 299,792,458 meters per second, to get to. It’s not exactly unreasonable to tell someone they’ll never reach a star.

Of course, this is a metaphor for those haters out there who always get you down or tell you, you can’t do something. Other people must have told the narrator and his partner that they would never make it as a couple.

In the end, she’s just going to end up leaving again, but this doesn’t matter to the narrator, because all the good in between makes up for the sad ending.

It’s like The Green Mile…even though the character of Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP) is inhumanely executed at the end, we all still watch that movie whenever it’s on, because it’s a great fucking movie up until that part.

Obviously, if this book starts at the point in which the narrator first met the woman of this song, then chapter 1 is going to be all about their young and innocent love.

He uses a simile to describe this love, in comparing it to the early morning sun which rises every new day. Notice the significance of this statement:

• Our eyes require light to function.
• The sun is the greatest source of light for us.
• This love was as innocent and young as the sun.
• Thus, love was the greatest source of light, which illuminated the narrator’s world.

This, of course, is basically Plato’s famous Metaphor of the Sun in simplest terms. As Plato put it:

When [the soul] is firmly fixed on the domain where truth and reality shine resplendent it apprehends and knows them and appears to possess reason, but when it inclines to that region which is mingled with darkness, the world of becoming and passing away, it opines only and its edge is blunted, and it shifts its opinions hither and thither, and again seems as if it lacked reason.

Again, the narrator is reinforcing the point that his life began with this relationship, and subsequently ended after this woman left him.

But…

That’s all right, because the amount of living he did do while she was with him, was enough to make up for the fact that his life is shitty afterwards.

This whole idea is not exactly new though:

***We’re looking at you, JP Morgan, HSBC, and Citibank***…

If you were to write an autobiography, you’d only include the most formative, exciting, and interesting parts of your life, right? Of course you would..

Gary is basically saying that everything that happened in his life, before he met this woman, doesn’t even compare to the moments he’s shared with her.

Aww…

Check out Zakaria’s reasoning for this statement, in this CNN interview he gave on 9/23.

Rouhani is the belle of the ball at this years UN general assembly. Considering US-Iran relations over the last few decades, an Obama-Rouhani meeting, or handshake even, is what everyone is watching for.

So why does Zakaria think this shouldn’t happen? It boils down to two basic things:

• Rouhani campaigned for President under the idea that he could negotiate with the West regarding the current sanctions against Iran. Zakaria has a feeling this charm is all about lifting those sanctions, i.e. all talk and no walk.
• Even if Rouhani really is ‘bout that diplomatic life, there’s absolutely no reason for the President himself to meet with him. As they say, you don’t give away the store…

While these are good points, they are not all that convincing either way, and are purely about political posturing, which often backfires. Others have pointed to the following reasons a meeting should take place:

1. It will embolden Iranian moderates.
2. It will give him a badly needed foreign policy victory.
3. There isn’t a whole lot to lose.

None-the-less..

It appears that Sec. of State John Kerry will be meeting with Rouhani instead, which is still a great start for both countries, yet a safe play all the same.

Not that she didn’t deserve them…But let’s hope she politely turned those scholarships down

Unfortunately, this isn’t likely. Many of the rich kids who receive scholarships every year based on their achievement were never taught things like humility or the fundamental aspects of citizenship, like helping others. A study over the past year showed that some schools are exploiting this little tidbit, by using financial aid to lure in wealthy families rather than help people who really need it. In the 2009-2010 school year:

• 35% of low-income families got an average of $7,237
• 36% of wealthy families got an average of $10,213

You might also recall the controversy surrounding the $54,000 athletic scholarship (one of only 285) that UCLA offered to Puff Daddy’s son.

The song ends with Gary admitting it may be run-of-the-mill for him, but he wouldn’t want it any other way.

It closes the same way it began, as the band take us through a repeating hook for the outro