Well, let’s do something a little less ambitious than that last post. I wanted to air out some ideas about political campaigning and ended up wanting to make a call-to-arms manifesto against the entire system. This time, let’s go with something a little safer. Something less ambitious, something a little smaller, more tame, and less cerebral.
Let’s talk about love and death.
I found this picture on CNN.com yesterday and have not since been able to shake it from my mind.
This came from an archaeological site in Verona, Italy, which is, coincidentally(?), also the setting of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It is estimated to be from 5,000-6,000 years old, the two lovers are assumed to be young on account of their fully intact teeth, and they lived in a time, as archaeologist Luca Bondioli says in the article, when many of our current religious sensibilities were being forged. And I, like any good modern observer, began to immediately think about a favorite pop song.
More specifically, the music of Death Cab For Cutie.
Since viewing this picture I’ve pulled out their Plans album and have given it a couple new listenings. I’ve always been captivated by their juxtaposing love and death, and the songs “Soul Meets Body,” “I Will Follow You Into The Dark,” “What Sarah Said,” and “Two Brothers On a Hotel Bed” do an especially beautiful job of examining love in light of death.
“…And the soles of your shoes/ are all worn down/ the time for sleep is now./ There’s nothing to cry about/ because we’ll hold each other soon/ in the darkest of rooms.”
-”I Will Follow You Into The Dark”
Death remains a mystery to us. This can be a painful topic to dwell on, but especially as a Christian who does not find much comfort in the Sunday School version of a cloud-riding Utopia. I find resonance with the monism of the Old Testament (body, soul, and mind as one entity, not separate ones), and long for visions of love and death that don’t preach about that happy day when we separate from our bodies. Does anyone else feel that difficult tension inside at a funeral when the speaker tells of the deceased being in heaven, right now laughing and singing, and wanting to believe it but silently insisting inwardly, “But he’s RIGHT THERE. Right now. And he’s not moving”? I do. And I don’t think that that is a non-Christian thought.
Is there a way to connect the soul and the body together, irrevocably, so that we can feel that inward tension begin to harmonize? I believe so, though I’m not sure how, exactly. But I know that it involves loving each other grandly. Those loved ones to whom we’ve given ourselves, especially. Loving my wife as myself; now that’s tough. But I think it is key to that harmony, in the same way that I think recognizing that we will both be dead and dusty one day is key. Death is real, and it makes life all the more real.
These are ideas, some connected some not. None, certainly, are concrete answers. But I do know that when I ask the questions of life and death, love and loss, soul and body, this picture of lovers long dead and still embracing is strangely warming.
“But I knew that you were a truth/ I would rather lose/ than to have never lain beside at all.”
-”What Sarah Said”
Amen. So be it.
2 Comments
February 13, 2007 at 3:53 am
Well, since your quoting lyrics I thought I would throw my hat in the ring…in the form of Paul Simon.
I couldn’t decide which verse to post because they all work so well together, so here’s the whole thing.
(or at least all three verses)
A man walks down the street
He says why am I soft in the middle now
Why am I soft in the middle
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don’t want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard
Bonedigger Bonedigger
Dogs in the moonlight
Far away my well-lit door
Mr. Beerbelly Beerbelly
Get these mutts away from me
You know I don’t find this stuff amusing anymore
A man walks down the street
He says why am I short of attention
Got a short little span of attention
And wo my nights are so long
Where’s my wife and family
What if I die here
Who’ll be my role-model
Now that my role-model is
Gone Gone
He ducked back down the alley
With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl
All alone alone
There were incidents and accidents
There were hints and allegations
A man walks down the street
It’s a street in a strange world
Maybe it’s the Third World
Maybe it’s his first time around
He doesn’t speak the language
He holds no currency
He is a foreign man
He is surrounded by the sound
The sound
Cattle in the marketplace
Scatterlings and orphanages
He looks around, around
He sees angels in the architecture
Spinning in infinity
He says Amen! and Hallelujah!
If you’ll be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Betty
And Betty when you call me
You can call me Al
Call me Al
ahhh….Paul Simon….sometimes i think he has experienced more daily anxiety than either you or I.
March 21, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I definitely believe that without death, why would we even treasure life? After Jered passing, I realize how short life can be, and though it is hard it shows me that life is something to be treasured and should not be taken for granted. And bravo on finding death cab for cutie. Glad I could be of service