Better Off

There's a young man by the water
Where his folks taught him to swim
He loves his father and his mother
And he wants to be like them
He sometimes tries to grab the moonlight
Watch it trickle through his fist
And he thinks that he sees ripples
In the dark under the mist
They watch him from the window
Never want him to get hurt, yeah
But you have to let a young man
Find his own way in the world
His father said, I don't know which is worse
And he said
I would have said not believing
But watching him I can't help feeling
Sometimes chasing what you know is real
Is worse than never dreaming
So if he asks me if I know or not
If that creature that he dreams about
Is real or just a vision
My love, what should I tell him?
So that he'll be better off
But the question never crossed his lips
He grew up to be a scientist
The world it was for solving
And fortune it came calling
But the place that marked his childhood dreams
Never left his thoughts it seems
Cause he came back to find
If the truth could get that creature off his mind
So in a fishing boat full of sensors
He set off on his adventures
With the best money could buy
To be his underwater eyes
His sonar kept on pinging
But his colleagues hands were wringing
They said genius went to waste
In his obsessive chase
And the papers read
I don't know which is worse
And they said I would have said not believing
But watching him I can't help feeling
Sometimes chasing what you hope is real
Is worse than never dreaming
So if you ask me if I think or not
If that creature that he dreams about
Is real or just a vision
I say he ought to take up fishing
And we'd all be better off
And then doubt came and filled his boat
And all his sensors he threw out
The night he was to fly
Came down to say goodbye
And by the water where he learned to swim
And with the fishing pole his dad gave him
To his great surprise
His creature rose up there before his eyes
And he had no camera there with him
For those glowing eyes
And that neck so slim
And in that moment knew
What he could never prove
And he swore he saw the creature wink
Before its head began to sink
Into the dark and out of sight
He'd waited all his life
He said I think I'll just go drinking
Cause I can't just sit here thinking
About the odds I'll see the likes of this again
And he met an old musician there
Who'd spent his whole life wishing for
A love he found when he was only twenty something
And they toasted each other
And drank to all fathers and mothers
For the strength to watch their children chase their dreams
And when the candles all burned down
The musician he clapped him on the arm
And he said to him I don't know which is worse
And he said
I would have said not believing
But ever since then I've been reeling
Sometimes missing what you know is real
Is worse than never dreaming
So if you ask me if I know or not
If those creatures that we dream about
Are real or just our visions
Maybe we ought to take up fishing
And maybe we'd be better off