thINK Assignment # 2 : High-Definition Television.

I used to write

I used to write letters
I used to sign my name
I used to sleep at night
Before the flashing lights settled deep in my brain
But by the time we met
The times had already changed
So I never wrote a letter
I never took my true heart
I never wrote it down
So when the lights cut out
I was left standing in the wilderness downtown

Now our lives are changing fast
Hope that something pure can last

It seems strange
How we used to wait for letters to arrive
But what's stranger still 
Is how something so small can keep you alive
We used to wait
We used to waste hours just walkin around
We used to wait
All those wasted lives in the wilderness downtown

Ooooo we used to wait
Sometimes it never came
Ooooo we used to wait
Sometimes it never came
Ooooo we used to wait
Still moving through the pain

I'm gonna write a letter to my true love
I'm gonna sign my name
Like a patient on a table
I Wanna walk again
Gonna move through the pain

Now our lives are changing fast
Hope that something pure can last

Ooooo we used to wait
Sometimes it never came
Ooooo we used to wait
Sometimes it never came
Ooooo we used to wait
Still moving through the pain

We used to wait for it
Now we're screaming
Sing the chorus again

I used to wait for it
Hear my voice screaming
Sing the chorus again

Wait for it

The song 'We Used to Wait' by Arcade Fire, made its debut on the album The Suburbs, which dealt with material fished out the past  -  in this context, growing up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas in the 70s. The album, attested Win Butler [lead vocalist], was not to be treated as a 'love letter to, nor an indictment of, the suburbs', but should rather been seen as a letter from the suburbs.

Not so much a lament as a personal allegory, I saw this song as finding today's means of long-distance communication to feel a little too ghostly, or transitory, or fickle, as opposed to the patient, comfortably idle, 'waiting' of yesterday. Really, we don't find ourselves to be doing very much waiting at all these days, do we? We have no need. We have Facebook feeds, Twitter accounts, and instant text messages, you see. Instant contact is not only available; it is very nearly trivial in our contemporary busy life format. 

The expectation is no longer there  -  which, I have decided, is unfortunate. The expectation was an aspect of romance in and of itself, and once could have been a reason to feel... content.