Ok, this is going to seem weird, one of the Off The Program guys on FFL going out of his way to cheer up the On The Program true-blue TM types, and help them remember what's important and what's not, but hey... shit happens.
I had a really shiny, ecstatic meditation this morning, and then logged onto to Fairfield Life and could not help but notice the contrast. And it took me only a few posts to get fed up with reading all the doom-and- gloom predictions and "The sky is falling" cries coming from the On The Program Chicken Littles in our midst, and I figured that people needed a break. Here it is, in song form, by my man Bruce Cockburn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL4CdHd9ma4 This is one of Bruce's most popular songs, and one of the few that ever made the "Top 40." And it made it because it's a HAPPY SONG. But the genesis of the song was anything but happy. Like many, Bruce can be affected by and distracted by the doom-and-gloom Chicken Littles squawking around him. Here is his story of how this song came to be: "I have a relative who is involved in one of those kinds of government jobs where they can't say what they do. The part you can say involves monitoring other people's radio trans- missions and breaking codes. At that time China and the Soviet Union were almost at war on their mutual border. And both of them had nuclear capabilities. I had dinner with this relative of mine and he said, 'We could wake up tomorrow to a nuclear war.' Coming from him, it was a serious statement. So I woke up the next morning and it wasn't a nuclear war. [Laughs] It was a real nice day and there was all this good stuff going on and I had a dream that night which is the dream that is referred to in the first verse of the song, where there were lions at the door, but they weren't threatening, it was kind of a peaceful thing. And it reflected a previous dream that was a real nightmare where the lions were threatening." -- from "Closer to the Light with Bruce Cockburn" by Paul Zollo, SongTalk, vol. 4, issue 2, 1994 The first two lines of Bruce's song say everything I am hoping to remind people of by sharing this song with them: Sun's up, uh huh, looks okay The world survives into another day Don't fall for the doom-and-gloom talk, *especially* when it comes from people who have been practicing meditation for 3-4 decades and are still spouting doom and gloom. Trust the meditation itself, and that clear, calm eternity that it enables you to merge with. Eternity abides, and you abide with it, no matter what the day brings when the sun comes up. What will happen will happen no matter what state of mind you bring to it. But if you buy into the state of mind that these doom-and-gloomers are trying to sell you, you might just miss an awesome sunrise. Wondering Where The Lions Are written 12 January 1979. Ottawa, Canada Sun's up, uh huh, looks okay The world survives into another day And I'm thinking about eternity Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me I had another dream about lions at the door They weren't half as frightening as they were before But I'm thinking about eternity Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me Walls windows trees, waves coming through You be in me and I'll be in you Together in eternity Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me Up among the firs where it smells so sweet Or down in the valley where the river used to be I got my mind on eternity Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me And I'm wondering where the lions are... I'm wondering where the lions are... Huge orange flying boat rises off a lake Thousand-year-old petroglyphs doing a double take Pointing a finger at eternity I'm sitting in the middle of this ecstasy Young men marching, helmets shining in the sun, Polished as precise like the brain behind the gun (Should be!) they got me thinking about eternity Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me And I'm wondering where the lions are... I'm wondering where the lions are... Freighters on the nod on the surface of the bay One of these days we're going to sail away, going to sail into eternity some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me And I'm wondering where the lions are... I'm wondering where the lions are...
