Andy Whitman has a thoughtful post on the loss of things on the Image blog. He talks about the loss of jobs, marriages, life, and relates it to the music of Bruce Cockburn, in particular the song, "The Rose Above the Sky" form the Humans album. He states of a friend who lost a business this uear:
It’s a bittersweet little melodrama I’ve seen re-enacted again and again in the past year; the end of longstanding good. And it doesn’t stop with employment woes. 2009 will mercifully end in a couple months. Auld lang syne, and good riddance.
He says of Cockburn's music:
In times like these—in most times, in fact—I listen to Bruce Cockburn and pray. I pray because I don’t know how else to process life, and because I figure that God would prefer that I moan and complain to Him rather than ignore Him and try to tough it out on my own.
And I listen to Bruce Cockburn because, more than any other songwriter I know, he seems to grasp the connection between the invisible hand of love and the all too visible scars of a messy life. Cockburn is a mystic with dirt under his finger nails, and I’ve listened to his beautifully poetic songs for 35 years now. And if he holds out for meaning, for answers, for beauty in the end—and he does—he is equally insistent that the sorrow and pain are real, and cannot be glibly explained away. These are redemption songs that ache.
I think I bought my first Bruce Cockburn album in 1982, so I have enjoyed his music and take on life for many years. You can listen to "Rose Above the Sky" here.
Lyrics:
Something jewelled slips away
Round the next bend with a splash
Laughing at the hands I hold out
Only air within their grasp
All you can do is praise the razor
For the fineness of the slash
'Til the Rose above the sky
Opens
And the light behind the sun
Takes all
Gutless arrogance and rage
Burn apart the best of tries
You carry the weight of inherited sorrow
From your first day till you die
Toward that hilltop where the road
Forever becomes one with the sky
'Til the Rose above the sky
Opens
And the light behind the sun
Takes all
Ozone on the midnight wind
Got me thinking of the sea
And the mercies of the currents that brought
Me to you and you to me
And in the silence at the heart of things
Where all true meetings come to be
'Til the Rose above the sky
Opens
And the light behind the sun
Takes all
Here is a video of Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" with the great line "Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight" which U2 echoed in "God part 2" with "Heard a singer on the radio late last night. He says he's gonna kick the darkness.Till it bleeds daylight."
LOVERS IN A DANGEROUS TIME
Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by
You never get to stop and open your eyes
One day you're waiting for the sky to fall
And next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
These fragile bodies of touch and taste
This vibrant skin this hair like lace
Spirits open to the thrust of grace
Never a breath you can afford to waste
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Lovers in a dangerous time
When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime
Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight
