Every night the air covers itself with bloodand on awakening everything returns as beforeThe icy wind is following our existenceand we talk about strange dreams
(from "Fourth ray of light" - Kirlian Camera)
One way to write a book is to find a song whose music and story will sustain you through the weeks or months it takes to give new birth. I found my muse for my next book in Madonna's "Ray of Light", about which one internet critic says: "Madonna feels like she just got home because she is the Ray of Light she's singing, writing and crying about - all done with a smile and tears to balance it out."
The critic goes on to say, "Madonna Believes in Love because she is Home. "Ray of Light" then is about the wonderment - the Joy and Sadness, Happiness and Sorrow of her life."
Madonna's version of "Ray of Light" begins with Zephyr in the night sky echoing the theme from "Fourth ray of light" where light dies in the red glow of sunset, but life begins anew at dawn and "we talk about strange dreams" like the Judeo-Christian Resurrection stories. Indeed the "faster than the speeding light" of the song conjures images of resurrection beyond the metaphysical and at the least hints at "home" in the sense of heavenward bound.
Our life's journey is going home to the Father. From the moment of our conception we move forward by degrees until our journey ends at natural death. Sorry, there is no softening that realityor is there?
Life can be filled with joy and hope, not to mention love, which all combined make this a wonderful trip. We can choose to live a life sparkling with joy and hope or we can entertain sadness and sin. The realization of God's daily presence makes all the difference. Faith is what makes it all possible.
I was struck this month by the fact that my mother was born 100 years ago. She was called to eternal life at fifty-eight, and I muse that the last forty-two years must have seemed like heaven to her. I'm sure she still feels like she just got home.
My choice of Madonna's song has nothing to do with the fact that she was number one in musical sales this past year. No, it has more to do with the singing, writing and crying about life, which is what an author does.
I believe in "a smile and tears to balance it out." Our lives are about the wonderment, about "the Joy and Sadness, Happiness and Sorrow" that makes this such a wonderful life.
The end of our lives should be what Leonard Cohen describes in his song "Going Home":
Going homeWithout my sorrowGoing homeSometime tomorrow
Going homeTo where it's betterThan before
