The songs focus on adult themes about coping with life as not being a kid anymore. I would not have written these songs in my 20s or early 30s. The things that affect me now are being married, being a mother, and being someone who thinks about mortality and politics. For Holland, The Book of Survival is a metaphor for coping, maintaining balance, and locating peace of mind on one's own brainmap. Some people have AA, some people have shrinks.
Most people have some type of religion, and others just wing it by the seat of their pants.
I include myself in the latter category. I just kind of figure it out in terms of how to live and get along. This is an insane world and insane times in which we live. We have wars, poverty, the threat of terrorist attacks, guys bursting into Jewish community centers and shooting people, freeway car-jackers, and freeway shooters. It's gone over the top.