Once in a lifetime

[Slik]

So....I'm out here in Cali on vacation. Last night I was finishing up dinner and doing some dishes and looking out the window over the kitchen sink it was like I awoke from a deep sleep. I asked myself "How did I get here?"  I literally asked myself the same thing that David Byrne asks himself in the song once-in-a-lifetime.

"How did I get here? This is not my beautiful house!"

Working so hard sometimes I don't even have time to pee. Not saying that to brag just stating a fact. Sometimes though I feel like being so busy takes precedence over my consciousness.

In other words, I set goals, and do everything I can to achieve them by working very hard to do that. Working so hard sometimes that I feel like I am functioning in an unconscious state programming myself to do what needs to be done to finish tasks.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate everything I have and I have it really good. There are a lot of people who work and don't have much to show for it. There are a lot of people who work harder than under terrible bosses at work. There are a lot of people that work harder than I in jobs they can't stand.

All I am is saying that every once in while when I slow down, usually when on vacation, and it usually takes three or four days, I have this feeling, it feels like I awake from an unconscious state, asking myself,  "How did I get here?"  I go from the driven unconscious Terminator state, to the conscious me state. More in touch with my feelings and what I enjoy in life, and not just doing tasks to achieve goals.

So what does all this mean? I suppose it means that we all need balance in life.

I'm still learning in life. Just when you think you know everything you realize how much there is to learn.

Does anyone else ever feel like this?

I know. White people problems.

[Slik]

Some interesting takes on the meaning of the song

http://askville.amazon.com/philosophical-meaning-Lifetime-Talking-Heads/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=1812728

Same as it ever was....
Let me say, right off the bat, that this song has ALWAYS made my brain hurt.  I think David Byrne is brilliant and I think it is a testament to his brilliance that everyone interprets these lyrics in a way that makes sense to him or her.  I have thought about this in a number of different ways, probably depending on where I was in my own life when I was thinking about it.
 
Today, this is what I think it means:  We (human beings) take the acquisition of material possessions so seriously that it becomes what we work for.  Meanwhile, time continues to pass and, one day, we realize that we have just worked solely to obtain these things and neglected to enjoy our lives.  If we do this, the material things become our definition of who we are.  What happens, then, if these things are lost?  We no longer have the identity that we have blindly created by collecting "things" and we don’t know who we really are.
 
The water flowing is the passage of time, which is the constant.  We get one chance to make life meaningful so we must be smart about it, examine our choices and decide what will bring us real joy and contentment.  If we continue doing what we think is expected of us in this life, without examining our choices, we may miss the things, people, events that would have really brought our life meaning.
 
If you ask me this again in six months, I will probably say something a little bit different.  Today, this makes perfect sense to me.  God love David Byrnes’ heart.  lol
 
"Once in a Lifetime"
 
And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful
Wife
And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...

Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...same as it ever was...


-----------------------------

Great take on it, sweets. My personal interpretation is sort of close.

I think this song is about the consequences of SETTLING. Settling for the things and the people you've been socialized to want and to strive for, but in the end are not fulfilling.

Hence the "This is not my beautiful house, this is not my beautiful wife!" And the "My God, what have I done?" lines...

And the line, "And you may find yourself..." to me, puts an emphasis on the word FIND, that epiphany moment when you DISCOVER your true self, not a passive becoming aware, like when you're on autopilot in the morning and suddenly "wake up" at your desk at work, oblivious of the routine of getting dressed and actually driving there. It's when you begin to truly FIND yourself as a person; what you're really about, what your true purpose is about. So, it might happen not in your palatial mansion, but in that shotgun shack or in another part of the world where your mind opens up for the first time and you quite literally WAKE UP.

[Natural Man]

you are gay.







































j/k

[El Diablo Blanco]

[Slik]

you are gay.

Wanna hook up?





































j/k

[Shockwave]

Yes... i often find myself in a thoughtless routine, days clicking by, as i worm towards.goals..... buy house, lose 5%more BF, up running speed by .5mph each week, buy son new toy, buy wife tits, etc etc etc.

Sometimes i suddenly realize in the pursuit of these goals i get tunnel vision and blow through the days sprinting to reach the finish line.

Unfortunately, that destroys the few hours a day i have to spend with my beautiful wife and son, as im always running from one stage to the next.

Every so often i find myself going a little stir crazy and getting restless from thd day to day grind...., i start craving drugs, partying, the old adrenaline fueled lifestyle that i left behind because it nearly killed me.... anytime i used to find myself locked in a mindless rut, id go out and spend a weekend getting fucked up... it was like a reset button, like the total chaos of the drugs balanced out the mindless day to day life. It was a vicious, vicious circle.

Thats when i know i need to take a step back and embrace the day to day time i have, that im becoming unbalanced again, rather than mindlessly let life fly by to reach the finish line, because i never want to go back to those days.

[Mr Anabolic]

Actually it's NOT your house at all.  You just rent it.  

Stop paying your taxes on it for a few years and you'll see who the real owner is.

[Slik]

Yes... i often find myself in a thoughtless routine, days clicking by, as i worm towards.goals..... buy house, lose 5%more BF, up running speed by .5mph each week, buy son new toy, buy wife tits, etc etc etc.

Sometimes i suddenly realize in the pursuit of these goals i get tunnel vision and blow through the days sprinting to reach the finish line.

Unfortunately, that destroys the few hours a day i have to spend with my beautiful wife and son, as im always running from one stage to the next.

Every so often i find myself going a little stir crazy and getting restless from thd day to day grind...., i start craving drugs, partying, the old adrenaline fueled lifestyle that i left behind because it nearly killed me.... anytime i used to find myself locked in a mindless rut, id go out and spend a weekend getting fucked up... it was like a reset button, like the total chaos of the drugs balanced out the mindless day to day life. It was a vicious, vicious circle.

Thats when i know i need to take a step back and embrace the day to day time i have, that im becoming unbalanced again, rather than mindlessly let life fly by to reach the finish line, because i never want to go back to those days.

Kinda makes me think of this

Time by Pink Floyd
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away, across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spell

[Natural Man]

So basically you just figured out life is meaningless...

[bigkid]

Actually it's NOT your house at all.  You just rent it.  

Stop paying your taxes on it for a few years and you'll see who the real owner is.

You're probably broke

[Slik]

Actually it's NOT your house at all.  You just rent it.  

Stop paying your taxes on it for a few years and you'll see who the real owner is.

i see ur point but tech taxes r not rent. It's ownership with conditions. Everything owned comes w conditions. It's not tech "your" license cuz break the rules n they take it away. Same goes w "my" freedom, wife, girlfriend, etc

[Slik]

So basically you just figured out life is meaningless...

life is far from meaningless. Getting caught in the trap of constantly working striving for material possessions and losing touch with how beautiful life really is is meaningless.

[Shockwave]

So basically you just figured out life is meaningless...

lifes meaning is whatever you make of it.

[Tapeworm]

Been breaking my ass for awhile now.  All I do is work on other people's shit.  I like my work but I've had enough of the humans.  I walked out of an arse-up project on Monday and told the guy I'm not going back so good luck with it.  Fuck him.  Clearly, I'm reaching saturation.

Got a pretty keen jones to surround myself with/involve myself in the things I love.  That has never happened for more than a few days at a time and that's no good.  If I don't grow some balls and do my own thing soon then I never will.

And I'm giving serious thought to living in a shipping container for a year or two.  You'll find that several steps below shotgun shack on the residential cache scale.

[tommywishbone]

The higher you climb the farther you can see.

[the trainer]

So....I'm out here in Cali on vacation. Last night I was finishing up dinner and doing some dishes and looking out the window over the kitchen sink it was like I awoke from a deep sleep. I asked myself "How did I get here?"  I literally asked myself the same thing that David Byrne asks himself in the song once-in-a-lifetime.

"How did I get here? This is not my beautiful house!"

Working so hard sometimes I don't even have time to pee. Not saying that to brag just stating a fact. Sometimes though I feel like being so busy takes precedence over my consciousness.

In other words, I set goals, and do everything I can to achieve them by working very hard to do that. Working so hard sometimes that I feel like I am functioning in an unconscious state programming myself to do what needs to be done to finish tasks.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate everything I have and I have it really good. There are a lot of people who work and don't have much to show for it. There are a lot of people who work harder than under terrible bosses at work. There are a lot of people that work harder than I in jobs they can't stand.

All I am is saying that every once in while when I slow down, usually when on vacation, and it usually takes three or four days, I have this feeling, it feels like I awake from an unconscious state, asking myself,  "How did I get here?"  I go from the driven unconscious Terminator state, to the conscious me state. More in touch with my feelings and what I enjoy in life, and not just doing tasks to achieve goals.

So what does all this mean? I suppose it means that we all need balance in life.

I'm still learning in life. Just when you think you know everything you realize how much there is to learn.

Does anyone else ever feel like this?

I know. White people problems.

Get off the drugs you fucking dumbass go to rehab.

[Shockwave]

Been breaking my ass for awhile now.  All I do is work on other people's shit.  I like my work but I've had enough of the humans.  I walked out of an arse-up project on Monday and told the guy I'm not going back so good luck with it.  Fuck him.  Clearly, I'm reaching saturation.

Got a pretty keen jones to surround myself with/involve myself in the things I love.  That has never happened for more than a few days at a time and that's no good.  If I don't grow some balls and do my own thing soon then I never will.

And I'm giving serious thought to living in a shipping container for a year or two.  You'll find that several steps below shotgun shack on the residential cache scale.

gotta do what you enjoy and find people you loke being around.

No amount of money is worth working a miserable job you hate everday, youll just become more miserable.

[Slik]

Get off the drugs you fucking dumbass go to rehab.

shouldnt u be busy kicking twinks out of power cages?

[Voice of Doom]

[MikMaq]

The higher you climb the farther you can see.

x2

I think I figured out my girl situation, school is going good, looking for paid internship for the winter.

And woosh, I'm like WTF?

[funk51]

So....I'm out here in Cali on vacation. Last night I was finishing up dinner and doing some dishes and looking out the window over the kitchen sink it was like I awoke from a deep sleep. I asked myself "How did I get here?"  I literally asked myself the same thing that David Byrne asks himself in the song once-in-a-lifetime.

"How did I get here? This is not my beautiful house!"

Working so hard sometimes I don't even have time to pee. Not saying that to brag just stating a fact. Sometimes though I feel like being so busy takes precedence over my consciousness.

In other words, I set goals, and do everything I can to achieve them by working very hard to do that. Working so hard sometimes that I feel like I am functioning in an unconscious state programming myself to do what needs to be done to finish tasks.

Don't get me wrong I appreciate everything I have and I have it really good. There are a lot of people who work and don't have much to show for it. There are a lot of people who work harder than under terrible bosses at work. There are a lot of people that work harder than I in jobs they can't stand.

All I am is saying that every once in while when I slow down, usually when on vacation, and it usually takes three or four days, I have this feeling, it feels like I awake from an unconscious state, asking myself,  "How did I get here?"  I go from the driven unconscious Terminator state, to the conscious me state. More in touch with my feelings and what I enjoy in life, and not just doing tasks to achieve goals.

So what does all this mean? I suppose it means that we all need balance in life.

I'm still learning in life. Just when you think you know everything you realize how much there is to learn.

Does anyone else ever feel like this?

I know. White people problems.

   all this is well and good but take time to smell the roses because like the kansas song dust in the wind says all our money can't another moment buy..... dust in the wind ,    all we are is dust in the wind....

[Slik]

  all this is well and good but take time to smell the roses because like the kansas song dust in the wind says all our money can't another moment buy..... dust in the wind ,    all we are is dust in the wind....

after my businesses started to do well I treated my parents to a lot of trips n things. My dad escaped communist China came to the U.S. with 20 bux. Worked like hell n raised a beautiful family. Anyway they gave all to the kids n it felt great to treat them. After a trip my mom wrote me a thank u card. I still have it. She said I work too hard n need to stop n smell the rose. She got cancer n died shortly after. U just never know. I stil have that card.

[Antonio fella]

Get off the drugs you fucking dumbass go to rehab.

Must be good shit kicking in ,, potent stuff

 

[Antonio fella]

after my businesses started to do well I treated my parents to a lot of trips n things. My dad escaped communist China came to the U.S. with 20 bux. Worked like hell n raised a beautiful family. Anyway they gave all to the kids n it felt great to treat them. After a trip my mom wrote me a thank u card. I still have it. She said I work too hard n need to stop n smell the rose. She got cancer n died shortly after. U just never know. I stil have that card.

Peaking right there ^^^^ good stuff ! Time to redose 1/2 of what you took ! Don't stop ! Keep writing ! Very interesting !

What picture was on the card?

[falco]