PAS DE DEUX WITH THE TERPSICHOREAN UNIVERSE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIZdjT1472Y

In this deeply existential song, Human (video link above; lyrics below), by The Killers, with its stirring querying of the meaning of human life, the ultimate question it asks is whether we are merely human or whether we are also dancers, participants in the larger context, the Great Dance of the Universe.

It asks whether humans exist as no more than individuated life forms, scheduled to live out a short existence here on Earth with no eternal prospects after we "cut the cord." Or, whether as humans we are active, ensouled bodies dancing in the Great Recital of the Universe.

We live all-too-brief life spans as individuated life forms, as humans who ask existential questions looking for ultimate, meaningful answers. The lyrics say, "I'm on my knees looking for the answer," but "there is no message we're receiving." This indicates humans exist in an unfathomable universe in which we live as "nervous" beings, with "cold hands" who must assume responsibility for acts of free will as we question our very existence.

At moments in our individuated lives, the lyrics say, we "see an open door" to the Beyond, in which at the last moment of life, "when the call comes" and we are on "the platform" ready for the final take off, we "clear our hearts," kindly acquiesce and "surrender" in a final leap of faith.

The lyrics say humans leave behind grace, virtue, good, soul, romance, devotion--the things that make us distinctly human, but we participate in a larger show, that of being Dancers in the Great Dance of the terpsichorean Universe, the "home" of which we dream.

Notice the band (in the official video) performs in a nonbiological mise-en-scene of nonhuman life forms. The tiger and lion signify the Universe-as-predator on individuated human lives; the vulture signifies death, our absorption into the Great Beyond. The band at the end gazes out beyond Earth, beyond individuated human life, to that open door.

The answer to the plaintive, existential question of whether we exist as humans or as dancers is that we, in essence, exist as both. In truth, we are embodied souls living within the greater OverSoul, the Atma.

The task, then, is disremembering the existential questions--plenty of that anon--and dance now in unfettered pas de deux with the embracing Universe. This song, by The Killers, provides some fullness-of-faith moments in which we can do just that.

Human
by The Killers

I did my best to notice
When the call came down the line
Up to the platform of surrender
I was brought but I was kind

And sometimes I get nervous
When I see an open door
Close your eyes, clear your heart
Cut the cord

Are we human or are we dancers?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancers?

Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Give my regards to soul and romance
They always did the best they could

And so long to devotion
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, wish me well
You've gotta let me go

Are we human or are we dancers?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancers?

Will your system be alright
When you dream of home tonight?
There is no message we're receiving
Let me know, is your heart still beating?

Are we human or are we dancers?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer

You've gotta let me know
Are we human or are we dancers?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold
And I'm on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human or are we dancers?

Are we human or are we dancers?
Are we human or are we dancers?

ZINGING ALPENTHOUGHTS

Like transhumant Pyrenean shepherds
my thoughts at times nourish in lowlands
revolving about quotidian physicality
such as whether Cajun seasoning works
in adzuki bean soup simmering on my hearth
or whether Roncal sheep cheese
will make my palate zing
--make it zing and zing.

At times my mind migrates upslope
to nourish seasonally at montane heights
on alpine meadow flowers and forbs
of rarified thought
such as whether black holes sing
or on the topology of the Universe,
whether space curves back onto itself
returning to where it all began
with no edges or ledges falling into nowhere
and whether as it circles around
it sings
--circling around it sings.

I’d like to think that spacetime,
matter, light, and thought all sing
as they zing upslope and down
and round and round.
And, like alpenglow at dusk and dawn
irradiating empyrean heights in lights
of life and thought flowing up, down, around
in a knowable Universe of arcing shape
that thinks, knows, and sings
--it thinks and knows
and knows
as it sings and glows.

FEAR IS A TEACHABLE MOMENT

Life has a way of making us confront our fears. Just wait for it, the opportunity will come when we must face them. At that point, we can pray for courage to overcome. This is one of the few instances when I am convinced of the power of prayer, as it gathers our strength for adversity, even if we are beseeching only our own selves, in a bit of self-coaching. Or, just maybe, the Universe is (Self-)listening to its children.

I always try to see through to the other side, when the frightful situation will have passed and I have survived in some altered, perhaps better, shape. But, at least the worst would be over and I will have learned and improved from the fearful situation.

The Universe wants us to learn. Fear is its teachable moment.

NATURE AS METAPHOR AND SACRAMENT

It would be difficult to fashion a definition of what it has meant to be human ever since the beginnings of our genus, without seeing humanity in relation to Nature. We as humans still need to experience the timeless, the mysterious, the primordial. This is found in Nature. Not because we can understand the mysteries of the Universe, but perhaps because we CANNOT comprehend its timelessness and vastness. As Trappist monk Thomas Merton said,

"We are exiles in the far end of solitude, living as listeners
With hearts attending to the skies we cannot understand."

I would say that our interior journey of understanding/not understanding is a mirror of our outer journey of understanding/not understanding. Nature, then, functions as both metaphor and sacrament of our Soul.

It's okay that we can understand so little of the interior/exterior wildernesses. But, the journey must be undertaken. Then, and only then, will we be helped along the way.