Into the Mystic

Feeling tied to the universe a bit more this day, a little more at one than usual. Why? I don't know but I do know that Into the Mystic by Van Morrison crept into my day recently and for whatever reason, maybe the season, I let the song in more. Let is wash over me, swirl around me some more. I've always loved the song as one of those easy flowing odes to whatever may need your eyes on. To me it's one of those significant songs that reaches in and touches a place you didn't know existed. I've said it before and I suspect I'll say it again, music has power in that way. The gentle melody coupled with the horns accenting and punctuating the soulful voice of the Irish rogue...yep.

I wanna rock your gypsy soul

Just like way back in the days of old

Then magnificently we will float 

Into the mystic

Getting back to the idea of music washing over me. Sipping wine with a friend recently and listening to her eclectic playlist as we took in the music in our own ways, a difference in listening was noticed. I let the music surround me, feeling the rhythm but not entirely moving to it, a strumming finger or gentle toe tap being my physical expression. Hearing the lyrics but not truly understanding them. Put another way, I see the forest despite the trees, I hear the song as a whole as opposed to being able to single out parts. It's why, I think, I am often ignorant of what songs are sometimes truly about. At least at first. I mean I know what the lyrics are I just may not know what they are saying. I often can't pick out the bass line because to my ear it's muted, intertwined with everything else going on in the song. Who knows...maybe my hearing is just screwed up somehow?

On the other side of the couch my friend was grooving to the music, hands flowing and head swaying to the rhythm. In her words the music enters her very body. She's at one with the tune, letting it control her, letting herself go completely with it. Neither one is right or wrong, just different. And I'm sure there are other ways to be as well...the important thing is that it works for you. It's like art and poetry, there is no right way to appreciate it. How the hell do any of us know what was meant by a 300 year old painting unless the artist wrote it down somewhere? But don't you see...that's the beauty of all art, it means whatever it means to each person. 

At "The Met" in New York I saw famous works of art that took your breath away and others that looked like I could paint them with a slight amount of effort. "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like" pretty much sums it up for me. I like to be surprised, I like to be moved and I like to see it all. I don't care if at first glance or first listen I'm not getting it all...they say art is timeless, so what's the rush?

All art, be it music, painting, poetry and prose, is held differently by each. 55,000 people watching U2 a few months ago and you can be sure we all didn't have the same feelings about the song Bad. It takes me to one place. And the other 54,999 people there have their own story. What matters is that we, together, were enjoying the moment while thinking out what it meant to us.

A good friend of mine is gifted in the world of digital art, she truly has a way of drawing you in with images that get you to look past the initial glance...you want to know what is going on there. Is it everyone's cup of tea? No. Of course not. To each his own right. I don't care for rap and country music. So what. An artist has taken part of their soul to show to the world and for that we can all be thankful. Giving credence to the idea that art is the highest from of hope.

That's the beauty. That's the gift. Take this quote away from the religious world for a moment...

"Grace is but glory begun and glory is but grace perfected"

To have grace you need glory, and glory is grace perfected. Art and hope are intrinsically connected, as grace and glory are, they feed off of each other, they nurture each other and they, in the end, need each other to flourish. What would life be without either? I shudder to think.

Ciao
D