On Suffering

"[On Buddhism and Christianity] Both preached moral virtue as the means of accomplishing what they regarded as the supreme object of life, the eternal salvation of the individual soul, though by a curious antithesis the one sought that salvation in a blissful eternity, the other in a final release from suffering, in annihilation."
                    -The Golden Bough, XXXVII. Oriental Religions in the West

"So the queen spoke the magician fair, and pretended that she had at last made up her mind to marry him. “And do tell me,” she said, “are you quite immortal? Can death never touch you? And are you too great an enchanter ever to feel human suffering?”"
                    -The Golden Bough, LXVI. The External Soul in Folk-Tales


I'm going to go ahead and call out Sally, Sarah, and Seth, albeit a month late, and let them know that neither "The View", "Cowboy Dan", nor "Doin' The Cockroach" depict suffering like "Missed the Boat."  I will grant to Sally that "The View" depicts the suffering we put on ourselves, which can be pretty harsh, and I will concede to Sarah that there are very few who have suffered as Job suffered, and Seth might be right that being life being out of your control can be horrifying (but are we ever really in control of our lives?), but it's quite plain to me that "Missed the Boat" is the sufferingest song by Modest Mouse.  Check it out for yourself:




"Missed The Boat"

While we're on the subject
Could we change the subject now?
I was knocking on your ear's door but you were always out
Looking towards the future
We were begging for the past
Well we knew we had the good things
But those never seemed to last
Oh please just last

Everyone's unhappy
Everyone's ashamed
Well we all just got caught looking
At somebody else's page
Well nothing ever went
Quite exactly as we planned
Our ideas held no water
But we used them like a dam

Oh, and we carried it all so well
As if we got a new position
Oh, and I laugh all the way to hell
Saying yes, this is a fine promotion
Oh, and I laugh all the way to hell

Of course everyone goes crazy
Over such and such and such
We made ourselves a pillar
We just used it as a crutch
We were certainly uncertain
At least I'm pretty sure I am
Well we didn't need the water
But we just built that good God dam

Oh, and I know this of myself
I assume as much for other people
Oh, and I know this of myself
We've listened more to life's end gong
Than the sound of life's sweet bliss

Was it ever worth it?
Was there all that much to gain?
Well we knew we missed the boat
And we'd already missed the plane
We didn't read the invite
We just dance at our wake
All our favorites were playing
So we could shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

Tiny curtains open and we heard the tiny clap of little hands
A tiny man would tell a little joke and get a tiny laugh from all the folks
Sitting drifting around in bubbles and thinking it was us that carried them
When we finally got it figured out that we had truly missed the boat

Oh, and we carried it all so well
As if we got a new position
Oh, and we owned all the tools ourselves
But not the skills to make a shelf with
Oh, what useless tools ourselves


Forget the suffering we put on ourselves, forget being unjustly punished for no reason, forget being out of control - it sucks when you just don't have what it takes to get the job done, or when nostalgia has a death grip on you and you're stuck in the past, thinking they were better days (whether or not they actually were), or when you're just one step out of sync with the world, realizing there may in fact be no good reason for the pretensions we put on or the depth to which we try to get ahead or impress others.  That, my friends, is suffering.