Wish You Were Here

🐠 Swimming in the Fish Bowl: Finding Connection in Alienation 

Hello, and welcome! Today, we're putting the needle down on the acoustic, profoundly moving title track from Pink Floyd, “Wish You Were Here.” Written largely as a tribute to their former bandmate Syd Barrett, the song is a universal meditation on absence, authenticity, and the shared experience of feeling lost.

Let’s use these iconic lyrics to explore the themes of Healthy Boundaries and Anxiety/Overthinking in the modern world.

Theme 1: Defining Reality vs. Illusion (Anxiety/Overthinking & Healthy Boundaries)

The song begins with a series of piercing, rhetorical questions that force us to distinguish between what’s real and what’s perceived—a battle many of us fight daily with Anxiety.

“So, so you think you can tell / Heaven from Hell, blue skys from pain? / Can you tell a green field / From a cold steel rail? A smile from a veil? Do you think you can tell?”

The anxiety-driven mind often blurs these lines, making it hard to trust our own perceptions.

• The Discernment Test: These questions are a call to establish Healthy Boundaries against confusion. When you are caught in the swirl of Overthinking, everything can start to look the same: happiness and misery, safety and danger. The core mental health task here is to pause and deliberately identify the reality: Is this genuine happiness, or just a veil over my pain? Is this a safe place, or a cold steel rail of expectation?

• The Choice of Authenticity: The act of asking these questions is a powerful Boundary against external manipulation, whether from the pressures of work, social media, or even toxic relationships. It forces you to define your own reality before someone else defines it for you. 🧠

Theme 2: The Cage of Compromise (Self-Acceptance & Depression/Sadness)

The lyrics then shift to the painful compromises we make in life, often trading our true selves for a sense of security or fame.

“And did you exchange / A walk on part in the war / For a lead role in a cage?”

This is the sharpest reflection on Self-Acceptance and the roots of Depression/Sadness that come from living inauthentically.

• The "Lead Role" Illusion: The "war" represents the messy, real, challenging fight of living an authentic life—where you are only a "walk on part" (just one person among many). The "cage" is the promise of fame, security, or stability that comes at the cost of your soul. Many of us, desperate for stability, choose the lead role in a cage—a job we hate, a mask we wear, or an identity that doesn't fit. This leads to profound Depression/Sadness and a loss of Self-Worth.

• Washing Away the Trade: This question is a prompt for radical Self-Acceptance. If you realize you made that trade, you can choose to step out of the lead role. Acceptance begins by acknowledging that the cage, however gilded, is still a cage. Your resilience is found in the courage to reclaim the "walk on part"—the messy, real, less-controlled version of you.

The Fish Bowl of Shared Experience

Finally, the song brings us to the collective feeling of alienation:

“We’re just two lost souls / Swimming in a fish bowl, year after year, / Running over the same old ground. What have we found? / The same old fears.”

This is the ultimate moment of shared humanity. When you feel lost or alienated, remember we are all "swimming in a fish bowl" together, facing the "same old fears." You are not alone in your sense of isolation; in fact, realizing that is the first step toward connection. 🤝

What is one "cold steel rail" (a fixed, rigid rule or expectation) that you can challenge today to reclaim your "green field"?