Song Meaning: Althea is the Goddess of Truth, and the subject and narrator, Jim is talking to Althea to in hopes of learning how to move past the problems he has in life and to talk him out of suicide ("clown in the burying ground" references laughing at death; "Self-centered to the extreme" references the selfish act of suicide). While she explains to him that his problems are self-inflicted, and that his friends are worried for him, he doesn't accept the truth. In fact, he is running from it ("I'm a roving son, and I was born to be a bachelor"). She warns that his thoughts of death are a one-way ticket to getting burned ("There are things in life that can be replaced, and others you cannot" - meaning life). While Jim knows he wants the truth, he's not fully accepting of it and so he continues to play the game and ask for guidance, despite having just been given the truth from Althea ("so now I'm trying to catch her" again, he's trying to understand the truth but he's not accepting it.). In the end, Jim continues to struggle with his own demons and thoughts of ending it but knowing deep down he still needs help.
