9. Chapter 2 Elliot Smith

13 songs to learn and sing
1. Sufjan Stevens - For the windows of paradise
2. Elliot Smith - Angeles
3. RJD2 - 1976
4. The Kooks - She moves in her own way
5. The View - Same jeans
6. Hello Goodbye - Here in your arms
7. The Postal Service - Such great heights
8. Elefant - Ester
9. Ride - Vapour trail
10. Love - Alone again or
11. Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Grey Cell Green
12. Death Cab for Cutie - I will follow you into the dark
13. Belle and Sebastian - There's too much love

Chapter 2

Nestled on the patio, Kara and I would eventually discover that we had mutual affection for the both the band Ned's Atomic Dustbin and songwriter Elliot Smith. Subsequently, Elliot would take his life by stabbing himself in the heart. Max always resented the fact that people labeled suicide as the "cowards way out" when shit, it took a lot of nerve. Exhibited in Smith's albums were misanthropic lyrics and motifs of self loathing and unrequited love, tantamount to a form of suicide letter.

The subject of suicide prompted discussions on fate, chance and kismet. Kara subsequently professed a conviction that she believed that things happened for a reason. She also believed in the idea of soul-mates. Kara assumed that in our individual, romantic careers we acquired various soul mates. I disputed this notion in theory, as I would assume that any approximate definition of the term soul mates should recognize that the immortal essences of only two people are predetermined and bound as companions for all eternity, blah, blah, blah. Only two people with paths that converge on each other from disjointed courses by seeming chance. At the time and in reality, I doubt that my argument was articulated as well as that. My current recollection may be bullshit but the point was still the same.

Kara admonished me erroneously by specifying that she didn’t mean sole mates. I explained that I understood what she meant and that my response wasn’t a semantic blunder. Her reasoning to me in argument was simply unromantic.

“If you are going to believe in this crap Kara, then there's only one person you’re meant to be with. Just one, not ten and not a hundred people. How do you spend eternity madly in love with a hundred people concurrently? That’s called bigamy and fucking illegal as far as I know.”