Closer to Fine - Indigo Girls

"Darkness has a hunger that's insatiable. And lightness has a call that's hard to hear. And I wrap my fear around me like a blanket. I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it.And I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains. I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains. There's more than one answer to these questions. Pointing me in a crooked line. And the less I seek my source for some definitive
(The less I seek my source). Closer I am to fine, yeah"

"Darkness has a hunger" feels obvious once you hear it. Of course it does. Fear, grief, shame, anxiety, they are never politely satisfied. They keep asking for more room. But "lightness has a call" is the quieter truth. The better thing does not always shout. Sometimes it is barely audible under the panic.

The brutal thing about fear is that it can feel protective while it is quietly shrinking the room. That is the ache in the image of wrapping fear around yourself like a blanket. It is comfort, but it is also captivity. It keeps you warm. It also keeps you still. And the "ship of safety" is inspiring because safety, taken too far, becomes its own danger. You can build your whole life around not sinking and still end up underwater.

That is the adult wound in the lyric: sometimes what saves you for a while becomes the thing you have to survive next.

The next passage is almost a whole philosophy of survival. You look everywhere: medicine, nature, children, ritual, water, wisdom, motion. Not because one of them has the answer, but because each one gives you a fragment. The line is crooked because healing is crooked. Understanding is crooked. Most importantly, becoming okay is crooked.

The song refuses the fantasy of the single definitive answer and that is the grown-up part. It does not say clarity is useless. It says certainty can become another trap.

Sometimes you do not get "fixed." Sometimes you just get a little closer to fine. That is truly all that really matters.