I saw that boy standing there with a deal...

Ordinary Day
by Vanessa Carlton

Just a day, just an ordinary day
Just tryin' to get by
Just a boy, just an ordinary boy
But he was looking to the sky

And as he asked if I would come along
I started to realize
That every day he finds just what he's looking for
Like a shooting star he shines

And he said, "Take my hand
Live while you can
Don't you see your dreams lie right
In the palm of your hand?"

And as he spoke, he spoke ordinary words
Although they did not feel, no
For I felt what I had not felt before
And you'd swear those words couldn't heal that

And as I looked up into those eyes
His vision borrows mine
And I know he's no stranger
For I feel I've held him for all of time

And he said, "Take my hand
Live while you can
Don't you see your dreams lie right
In the palm of your hand"
In the palm of your hand

Please come with me
See what I see
Touch the stars for time will not flee
Time will not flee, can't you see?

Just a dream, just an ordinary dream
As I wake in bed
And the boy, that ordinary boy
Or was it all in my head?

Didn't he ask if I would come along?
It all seemed so real
But as I looked to the door
I saw that boy standing there with a deal

And he said, "Take my hand
Live while you can
Don't you see your dreams lie right
In the palm of your hand"
In the palm of your hand, in the palm of your hand

Just a day, just an ordinary day
Just tryin' to get by
Just a boy, just an ordinary boy
But he was looking to the sky

I once thought of this song as a love song as all songs with the words "boy", "girl", "touch" and "dream" are all beautifully and confusingly jumbled in the lyrics but later, I came to the understanding that this song is not a love song at all. It is a song of hope. Surprisingly, I believe that this is a Christian song.

See the first stanza of the lyrics, it introduces the two primary characters of the song -- a hopeless girl trying to get on with her everyday life and an ordinary boy who is looking to the sky which I reckon could mean that this boy is either looking for UFOs or just plainly like to see the world in all it's hopefulness by looking up the sky! The latter is my best and only bet.

So that ordinary boy asked the hopeless girl to come along with him. And the girl realizes that what the boy is looking for, he finds it everyday and for that he shines. In all my time here on Earth, I could conclude that every human being alive would only like to find happiness. So there! That boy is looking for happiness and he finds it every single day. That's how the second stanza unfolds.

In the third stanza, the boy asks the girl to trust him enough to take his hand and to live her life while she can and be aware that her dreams lie in her own hands. Hmmmm... This made me thought that the girl is suicidal. What do you think?

The fourth stanza is vague. It expresses the negativity of the girl, that's for sure.

The fifth stanza was what made me realize that this song could be a Christian song. So the girl and the boy looked into each others eyes and that was when the girl realizes that this boy is no stranger and she felt that she have held this boy for all of time. This time I thought that the boy could be Jesus! I mean, he's definitely no stranger to us and we always feel that we've held him for all time. But then I realized, Jesus lives in all of us so this boy is really just an ordinary boy.

The sixth stanza is the same with the third one. So as the seventh. The boy asked the girl to come with him and see what he sees, to touch the stars and he assures her that time will not flee. I love this stanza. If the world is full of ordinary boys like this one, this would surely be a happier carefree world. A world full of hope and goodness.

And the girl realizes that what happened was just a dream. That's the eight stanza! She woke up in her bed and thought that the boy was all in her head. And in the ninth stanza, she realized that she's wrong because she saw that boy standing there in the door with a deal.

The deal? That's in stanza ten. The deal would be to take his hand and live her life fully! And I would like to think that the eleventh stanza could be that whenever the girl feels down, there would always be that ordinary boy to bring a smile to her face and a ray of sunshine to her ordinary days!