From my facebook status a few days ago:

Listening to a James Taylor album I recently purchased, with songs I mostly hadn’t heard before. “My Traveling Star” has got to be one of my favorites ever. Yay. 🙂

A moment later, I’d written a new facebook status:

OK, I’m listening to Line ‘Em Up by James Taylor and I don’t understand the lyrics. What do they mean, anyone who knows?

The most helpful reply I got:

Do they seem to be about lining things up?

Well, that clears things right up!

So I asked my math class. 🙂 And got a partial answer! One of my students e-mailed me some more info after class. After some more discussion, I now think I know what the song means. Well … not in every detail, but to my own satisfaction anyway.

Here’s your assignment: go, now, and listen to the song (legally) and think about how you’d interpret it. Or look up the lyrics. Or just pretend you did and wait for me to explain how I see it, which I will do in a few more days.

(The new post is here.)