Journeys in Cement Shoes

"though the Truth may vary, this
ship will carry our
bodies safe to shore"

- Of Monsters and Men, Little Talks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ-kXZsUa_w



Every so often, poets can capture a truth in their verse that regular speech cannot convey.


We are trained/raised/wired to believe that Truth is fixed, unchanging, defined.

Then we grow up and discover fluidity in the place of cemented realities, movement in place of fixed facts, perhaps a universe of dance instead of standing still. We begin to discover the terrifyingly free openness to the world, to ourselves, to Existence. And it is horrific in its scope - we can be anything, we ARE nothing, and we often do not know which is which.

Yet, within a quiet still sound behind it all, we are sometimes able to detect a direction to the madness, a method to the random drunken dance of life. We come to appreciate the vehicle Torah provides, instead of the boundaries we thought it was - instead of a pair of cement shoes ensuring our remaining stuck in our misguided lives, it is a sail that allows us to ride the waves of Life and Time itself. We come to realize it is our saving grace, instead of our doom - it keeps us on the Path (Halacha) to the shores of tranquil Love, or relationship between Infinite and little plain old me.

And in our awakening of Love, we can sing in recognition and appreciation for the very ship that we ride from finitude to Eternity....and so, while Truth may vary, it remains the ship we can ride Home.