“How Could We Know There Would Be Enough?”

Every time I get a Kate Jacobs album, there seems to be at least one “a-ha” moment – that moment where the song takes a surprising turn or twist and goes off in a direction you could not possibly have predicted. You Call That Dark contains several, beginning with the first song.

In “Your Big Sister” the narrator is a youngest child speaking to another youngest child. You probably know the type:

“I know you, you are much like me

The youngest of a big family

Where you’ve learned to lie and cheat

And steal and smile and still seem sweet

But I know your big sister.”

The song then goes on to discuss the worry that such behavior has placed on the big sister, but that’s not the a-ha moment. This is:

“It’s not our fault that we are so bad

That we’ve stolen everything we every had:

How could we know there would be enough?”

Sometimes people steal what they could have for free if they would only ask. Love, attention, whatever. And it strikes me that coming to the realization that there is enough, making theft unnecessary, is the beginning of a new kind of maturity that she is trying to impart to her listener.

How different would we be if we lived as if there were enough?