From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V12 #368 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Friday, February 8 2013 Volume 12 : Number 368 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [RS] You Stay Here [Chris Foxwell ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2013 11:22:25 +0300 From: Chris Foxwell Subject: Re: [RS] You Stay Here On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 6:01 AM, Bart Gallagher wrote: > > But, in You Stay Here, I think RS covers love too. > > ...and if I can, some sugar for the kids. > > and ...we'll wash them clean with melted snow > the kids won't ever have to know..." > > and, the reference to god, knowing where he's NOT, is a cry for love. > > I admire the father. He is struggling to make the best of this non-life > for his family...Love. > That's a great point. Shelda said something similar a few days ago, I believe, though I was too busy at the time to respond. I totally agree, love definitely is interwoven throughout the song, and imbues all of the parent's actions. (The singer could be a mother as well as a father!) I wonder what we can do with this. The first thing that comes to my mind is that love, alone of all the "essentials" being listed, except possibly faith/spirituality, is something that can be generated and sustained solely by people, among and for themselves. Nothing external is needed, neither ingredients nor fuel nor tools nor validation (other than mutual reciprocation -- but that's included within the concept of love, which must be mutual in order to make sense here). It's tempting to list faith as another such "free" essential, but as we hear in the song, faith can be shattered and lost as a result of external circumstances. (CAN be, not necessarily need be.) So, we have love...is that enough to go on? Possibly. One interpretation of the song is that, after listing all the missing essentials, concluding with a bitter storm of resentment against God, the song returns to the quiet, humble beginning: "you stay here, and I'll go look for wood." Life persists, things go on, with love as the engine. Another interpretation is to hear surrender and futility in that return, as well as the resetting of a grim cycle: love is present, but the lack of the other essentials dooms the family to a desperate existence marked by repeated cycles of resentment. Both interpretations remind me of McCarthy's *The Road*. As well as the video to Trent Reznor's new single, which is pretty haunting. In terms of the golem being manufactured: well, this may sound facile, but you can't create something *wholly *out of nothing. Heh. The absences and lack that make up the golem's existence are stitched together by something present: love. If anything, this kind of increases the tragedy and horror of the golem's existence. ...yes, this is a huge stretch, I know. I'm just having fun at this point. Now this is calling to mind C.S. Lewis's famous quote, "To be greatly and effectively wicked a man needs some virtue. What would Attila have been without his courage, or Shylock without self-denial as regards the flesh?" A modification of this suggests that to be truly and wholly tragic, a story/existence must contain something positive -- in this case, at least one "essential." As Bart and Shelda imply, without love, there would be no story/song here -- and thus no tragedy to appreciate. For the golem, without "some virtue" there would be no construction, and no monstrosity to bear witness to. Just some ramblings, born of frustration at not being able to hear Richard at Passim. It's been years now since I came over here with the Peace Corps; I'm in serious live-Richard withdrawal. Chris - -- "We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is this comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water." --J.R.R. Tolkien ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V12 #368 ************************************