[zeno's paradox]
[Time: 4'54"]
[Lyrics: Andy Wagner]
[First performed November 22, 1997 -- show #4]
[Appears as track #2 on "Pastor of Muppets"]
[Tim: electric bass, Nevin: violin, Kort: bouzouki, Jamie: percussion, vocals, Andy: guitar, vocals, Thom: guitar, vocals]


This is definitely a math-rock song. It deals with Zeno's Paradox,
which states that you can never get from point A to point B without going half
of the distance, and then half of the remaining distance, and then half of that
remaining distance, etc., thus you have to travel through an
infinite number of half-distances, and can never get there.
And imagining yourself at point A, and the object of your enamoration
at point B. Instant romance! Viva la math!


I proffered my first step toward you
And in that advance moved twice as near
In calculating a foothold
I thought I'd soon be there and you'd be here
But the second stretch was not such a stretch
And there still lay
One quarter between us seamed from the half
I'm trying to reach you but I'm thrown off by the math

Should throw physics to the dogs
And just jump, not crawl, not creep
But if I run half of the distance
There'll be the other half to leap
And of that half there'll be one half
With two halves of its own
The two of us have negative powers
That avail us to stay alone

I pictured a balladrome, not a ballet
In which I've proved I can not breach
The inch left to traverse without
Crossing halves and fourths and eighths and sixteenths
And on this backwards escalator
I'm slipping in cut time
You really can't get there from here
Without eternally stopping on a dime

I don't want your infinity
To suffer my concerns
It's just that my feet are getting smaller
By half-sizes I can't discern
Circumscribing concentric circles, a tetherball
Chasing a polar kiss
The two of us have negative powers
That invisibly part our lips.


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