Sunday 14 December 2003

Pic of the day: ... until the sky breaks open again ... Picture from MS Media Player music motion. Yes, I watched these while playing the song over and over again. I guess that can explain some things...

Angels, snow, & love

It all started one morning as I woke up, which is rather appropriate. I woke from my clock radio playing a Norwegian song, Engler i sneen, meaning "Angels in the snow". And no, this is not the song by Kenny something. Not at all. It is written in Norwegian book language by Ole Paus, and typically performed by Jonas Fjeld who also composed the melody. It is his best loved song here in Norway, and with good reason. I bought a CD where he sings it in duet with Lynni Treekrem. It is also translated into English, but I have been unable to obtain the English lyrics as it is rather less famous abroad.

The original Norwegian text is very powerful, blending fact and metaphor seamlessly. I will refrain from any attempt to render it poetically in English and just translate as literally as I can, with my own comments in between.

***

"Angels in the snow": These are not literal angels, but shapes that kids make by lying in the snow and fanning their arms to create "wings".

(Male voice:) Angels in the snow have a song of their own: When the night is at its blackest, they sing of sunrise.

In California, it goes without saying that day follows night. Not here. Norway is further north than most inhabited places on Earth, and in the winter days are short even here on the south coast. In northern Norway, the night can last for weeks without a glimpse of the sun. Yet hope remains. In the same way it can be in a human life, and he goes on to tell his own tale of the darkness and the sunrise:

I stood in the shadows, in rain and wind. I was a stranger until you opened yourself and let me in.

Lucky guy. Just what he needed! I wonder how common that can be.

(Female voice:) I stood alone until you stepped forward. I was homeless, but you made of me a home.

Literal homelessness is virtually unknown in Norway (and generally fatal, see above about winter). So we're talking about the soul again. The concept of making someone into a home is something I have not heard before, a very powerful idea. Normally we seek something outside ourselves. But often what we need is to be transformed.

You gave me warmth when everything was frost. The angels in the snow have a special song for people like us.

Meaning, this event is not included in the standard version of Real Life Beta 1.0...

(The chorus goes on to explain how they must now necessarily stay together and sleep together and be part of each other until the sky breaks open again. I'll skip that for now and get to the good stuff.)

(Male voice:) Angels in the snow have their own life. They shine in winter, but when spring comes, they wilt.
Angels in the snow have a song of their own: They sing that everything that lives here and now will come to an end some time.

Buddha could hardly have said it better. Like those shapes in the snow, also the human form is fleeting; it simply last a little longer. Mountains last thousands of times longer than that again, but they too wear down eventually. All things come to an end, and humans not least of them. But those who make angels in the snow still delight in their creation, even though at the very most they last till spring. It is the nature of this creation to be temporary. It is not a cause for sorrow when we take it for granted.

(Female voice:) Angels in the snow make song from wind. They sing for anyone who open up and take them in.
Angels in the snow sing without words. And when spring comes, they go without sorrow and without a trace.

This, dear reader, is what I reach out for. To fade, until when the time comes, there is no sorrow at my passing. Then, no memory of who said the words you remember. And then, finally, not even the words, only the work those words did in your heart.

***

My small self, the ego, cringes in fear at this fate. It doesn't want immortality through its works, it wants immortality through not dying. (Was really Woody Allen the first to say that thing? It seems kinda obvious.)

Yet isn't this what mankind has strived toward for these thousands of years? To dispel the illusions, the ignorance, the darkness. The angels in the snow herald a coming age in which illusion is replaced by insight. And I want, or perhaps it is just my fate, to be one of the angels in the snow. Not one of the two who see the angels in the snow and decide this is a good reason to hook up. Not that they aren't right.

Angels in the snow is a different love song, for more advanced souls. It is unlike the almost animalistic simple love songs that say "let's make love because we can and because I want you". (Not that this isn't a compelling reason as long as both feel the same way.) It is not even at the primitive human level of "let's make love because I'll always be here and protect you and the cubs". No, this song says "let's make love because the world is awe-inspiring and the more we see, the smaller we feel alone". I believe this to be a very good response.

Human culture has suffered the occasionally setback, but all in all civilization has progressed. Today a child knows things that were hidden for the greatest sages a few generations ago. And it could easily continue like this for a while. If nothing else, it is worthwhile to create a home and raise a next generation of humans to stand on your shoulders ... Perhaps they can reach what you cannot.

Parents are not simply breeders. They are building the pyramid of mankind, an immense project that has gone on (not always so successfully, but still) for thousands of years. We don't necessarily stand on the shoulder of giants. We just stand on the shoulders of A LOT of people, which is why we have reached the moon and much more. But this is not the end, if all goes well. We have just begun. And while love is not strictly necessary to propagate the species, I believe it is necessary to move it forward.