The Best of Everything

The song looks back on a woman the speaker once knew, imagining what her life may be like now. He remembers that she might have followed her mother into restaurant work or tried singing, but he is unsure what became of her. The repeated wish for her happiness gives the song a tender, generous mood, mixed with regret for a relationship that never became lasting love.

The imagined jobs show how little the speaker knows about her present life: he can only guess. His wish that she found “whatever” she was looking for suggests that he accepts her separate path, even if he does not know where it led. The contrast between bad nights that seem endless and good nights that pass quickly expresses how emotion can shape our sense of time. Their kisses are remembered as real, but not proof that they had “the real thing.”

The speaker’s feelings are affectionate without being wholly settled. He seems to grieve what might have been, yet he does not ask her to return or blame her for the past. “What we were caught up in” is left vague: it may refer to youthful confusion, strong feelings, or circumstances they did not understand. The song allows these possibilities to remain open while focusing on a simple hope for her well-being.