No One Is To Blame
Feel the punishment, can't commit the sin
You can look at the menu, but you just can't eat You can feel the cushions, but you can't have a seat You can dip your foot in the pool, but you can't have a swim You can feel the punishment, but you can't commit the sin
You can build a mansion, but you just can't live in it You're the fastest runner but you're not allowed to win Some break the rules, and let you count the cost The insecurity is the thing that won't get lost
You can see the summit but you can't reach it It's the last piece of the puzzle but you just can't make it fit Doctor says you're cured but you still feel the pain Aspirations in the clouds but your hopes go down the drain
Howard Jones
It is a strange thing to fall in love. Not like in the movies where timelines are compressed to meet running lengths and audience anticipation. Love for some takes decades. And sometimes it's lust that drifts into caring and obligation. For lesser men and women, this can result in relationships that fizzle and die.
But, for a few—those with a higher obligation and expectation, that obligation carries a weight that most cannot understand. Possibly a parent. Someone who walked through a doorway only to find themselves in a room they didn't expect and when turning around find that the door isn't locked, it's gone. In it's place, smooth wall.
They can do one of several things.
Claw and scratch and go insane until they chew a new exit in the wall. That ruins everyone. They can quietly endure life there in the room and explore the other connected dwellings. Some are very nice. Or, they can invest and make the space theirs. Redecorate and change the environment to be the best it can be.
Once in a while, this person will look out the windows and see the lives they may have had, but understand you can only live one existence. There is no going back. Fantasy and memory allow a recollection, but you can't abandon your life.
Or you shouldn't.
I think that's what No One Is to Blame is about. Realizing there were other purposes for you. Falling in love but understanding that though they may have also fallen in love with you and no one asked for it or even tried to make it happen, it did.
And you are confronted with that reality. Those feelings are deep and intractable, especially if they grew over many years, decades even. A flash of lust passes easily. But deep abiding love for someone—what do you do with that?
Well, you can look at the menu, but you just can't eat. Yes, you can feel the punishment, but you can't commit the sin.
You love her. Or you love him. or whatever the dynamic is. But whatever you do, let it be a love in your heart. Don't pierce the veil of action or declaration. The day you do, you can't go back. You'll always know the summit is there but that you'll never climb the mountain.
You suffer aspirations in the clouds but your hopes go down the drain.