True meaning "north is to south what the clock is to time"

Anotherman...

ok, so maybe i don't "know" the true meaning of the lyric, but here I go:

"North is to South what the clock is to time"

North is the opposite of South.

Many times the way that a clock measures time feel like the complete opposite of how a human measures time.

for example, if it's monday and you hate your job, an hour feels like a year.
If you're at a PJ show and they play a three hour set, it feels like it only took five minutes.

vedderfan10

For me, I am mine is about personal responsibility - accepting it and not blaming others for everything...You are yours, I am mine...you are what you are...(hmmm...that sounds like "Suite for Judy Blue Eyes")....

the clock is responsible for time - or the other way around
without north there is no south....

blah, blah, blah....I lost my train of thought...

Ultimately you are responsible for yourself...but also everyone else is responsible for themselves and the choices they make, etc....

12345AGNST1

I interpret it as: Life is life, learn who you are as a person, you are your one person, learn to appreciate yourself. North is to south as clock is to time means nothing really, their simply both the same and it doesn't matter.

Its really hard to explain what I think that line means but thats what I think.

PJammer4life

N and S compass directions tell you which direction you're going but not where you are at. The clock tells you time..but not what is happening. It's about wandering through life to find your own path and direction, in your own time..

Red Burrito

“North is to South what the clock is to time”

It represents what each means to each other:

If you have North, you know South…
If you have a clock, you know time…

I always thought it was as simple as that...but I have been wrong many a time.

WalkingTightropeHigh

PJammer4life wrote:

N and S compass directions tell you which direction you're going but not where you are at. The clock tells you time..but not what is happening. It's about wandering through life to find your own path and direction, in your own time..

I've always wondered about this lyric, and I think this explanation seems to be pretty good.

vedderfan10

PJammer4life wrote:

N and S compass directions tell you which direction you're going but not where you are at. The clock tells you time..but not what is happening. It's about wandering through life to find your own path and direction, in your own time..

WOW! That just took my breath away...

"I know I was born and I know that I'll die - the in between is mine" means extactly that...you know the beginning and the end, but the rest is what you make it and you deal with what happens...And things are NEVER the way you plan...you get massive adversity and YOU have to deal with it...It's up to you how you handle things...can't blame others for your reaction to life's events good or bad...

My cell phone says "I only own my mind - I am mine"...because only I can control what I think and because I can only control what I think.

wash_

Goddam I love this band!

I've always wondered about that lyric, these interpretations are certainly giving me food for thought.

Pearjamfanno1

Iv always been muddled by these lyrics. At first i thought i was the only one that realised that north is to south is not the same as what a clock is to time.

Dissident67

My own personal interpretation is that the line is about how everything and everyone depends on something. I feel that "the north is to south as the clock is to time" shows this. I think that people always view north as a constant, the north star is the base of all directions so it is only natural that all the other directions depend on the north. Also time depends on the clock because whatever the clock says is the time that it is. I think that this interpretation fits with the song because the song is always introduced as a song about safety, and i think to feel safe that means that you have to depend on someone or something to protect you. So I think this line is just 2 comparisons of how everything needs to depend on something. Thats just my interpretation though and who really knows what is "right" but this really is a beautiful song no matter what you personally take out of it.

Anon

great thread, interesting ideas!!
always wondered about that lyric
i am mine is one amazing song.

DangDang

Within the context of the whole song, these lines mean "it doesn't matter".

The important part is the "between"

Time and Space don't matter.

Unless they do!

In which case the lyrics mean E=mc2

Gossard_Is_God

Red Burrito wrote:

“North is to South what the clock is to time”

It represents what each means to each other:

If you have North, you know South…
If you have a clock, you know time…

I always thought it was as simple as that...but I have been wrong many a time.

Yeah this is what ive always thought too.

Cardinal

PJammer4life wrote:

N and S compass directions tell you which direction you're going but not where you are at. The clock tells you time..but not what is happening. It's about wandering through life to find your own path and direction, in your own time..

This is how I see it it too......and you are the controller of your destiney...nobody else is responsible for the actions in your life but you in the end....its realizing that and feeling safe and content in your own skin about that.

Yellow Ledbelly

Cardinal wrote:

This is how I see it it too......and you are the controller of your destiney...nobody else is responsible for the actions in your life but you in the end....its realizing that and feeling safe and content in your own skin about that.

I've always thought that myself, but I can also see "the in between is mine" as an invitation for others fuck off

Two Birds

The in-between = the dash....

For that dash represents all the time
that she spent alive on earth...
and now only those who loved her
know what that little line is worth.



For it matters not, how much we own;
the cars...the house...the cash,
what matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our “dash”.



So think about this long and hard...
are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left,
that can still be rearranged.

Cosmo

My interptretation:
North and South are measures of where you are... the physical space you occupy.
Clock is a measure of Time... when do you occupy this physical space.
...
Basically a metaphor for 'At this Place.. at this Time'.
I only know two things for sure... I was Born... and I will Die. So, what I do with space and time between those 2 known events belongs to me.

washedinblack91

i always thought they were opposites, that north and south are opposites, and so is the clock and time. i dunno if i can explain it, almost like, the clock may indicate the time like 3:46, but that "time" is the opposite in value with the "time" spent between a mother and child or a teacher and a pupil and etc. same thing with calendar age and what you feel inside, the calendar may indicate that you're 80 but inside you may feel 20, so the clock "time" is different than what you perceive or how you use up that "time". i dunno if i'm clear at all or if i made any sense but there you go...

i just read the first post, i didn't want my interpretation to be affected by anything and looks like we agree!

Anotherman... wrote:

ok, so maybe i don't "know" the true meaning of the lyric, but here I go:

"North is to South what the clock is to time"

North is the opposite of South.

Many times the way that a clock measures time feel like the complete opposite of how a human measures time.

for example, if it's monday and you hate your job, an hour feels like a year.
If you're at a PJ show and they play a three hour set, it feels like it only took five minutes.

i shit and i stink

I always just imagined that one couldn't exist without the other, the same as Eddie's feeling of 'I' and 'mine'. You can't have a sense of identity without having an identity first.

Corduroyboy

PJammer4life wrote:

N and S compass directions tell you which direction you're going but not where you are at. The clock tells you time..but not what is happening. It's about wandering through life to find your own path and direction, in your own time..

Damn... I love it. So simple, yet so deep.

Ms. Haiku

Anotherman... wrote:

ok, so maybe i don't "know" the true meaning of the lyric, but here I go:

"North is to South what the clock is to time"

North is the opposite of South.

Many times the way that a clock measures time feel like the complete opposite of how a human measures time.

for example, if it's monday and you hate your job, an hour feels like a year.
If you're at a PJ show and they play a three hour set, it feels like it only took five minutes.

It's a throwaway lyric meaning nothing. It's probably already written, but I haven't read the other posts.

When there is a north there is a south. You can't have one without the other because the one only exists in relation to the other. They are points of reference to each other. The idea of north and south only exist for the benefit of understanding an idea of direction. A clock is a physical object counting time. Regarding time, an arbitrary structure is imposed on something just for the sake of having a point of reference. North, south, and time are points of reference, but a clock is not. A clock doesn't really work with the analogy. Time is ongoing so what would work would be something opposite of ongoing like "end." North is to south like end is to time. North is to south like static is to time. Something that doesn't move would work. North is to south like rock is to time. Clock reflects time. North reflects south in a mirror. Maybe that's what he was going at not an easy analogy but a reflection.