For Beginners

So, this song is about the fact that when we're young we're optimistic and the whole world seems right and just and beautiful. But eventually we come to a valley, and to "hunters" (people who want to harm us for one reason or another) shooting their symbolic arrows at us. Ward compares this to the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. Before they disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve new no suffering, nor even death. This is in the Bible--it was by disobeying God that Adam and Eve brought their own downfall, which brought suffering into the world, very similar to how Pandora brought all suffering into the world by opening her box. Anyway, as youths we tend to enjoy a brief time when we are without a lot of suffering, but life inevitably brings misfortunes your way. It's just how it is, and there's not much we can do about it.

However, Ward does give advice here. Essentially he says to the would-be hunters of the world, "Hey, if you've never experienced any misfortune, go ahead and shoot your arrows at other people." It's very similar to Jesus when he stopped the execution of an adulteress by saying, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." No one could cast a stone because everyone present had sinned. The idea here is asking us all to remember how others have treated us badly, and not to add to the pain of others ourselves. So basically, just be kind to others.