{"id":2058,"date":"2008-11-21T10:43:25","date_gmt":"2008-11-21T15:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=2058"},"modified":"2008-11-21T11:07:17","modified_gmt":"2008-11-21T16:07:17","slug":"senses-seeing-yourself-and-the-voices-of-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/senses-seeing-yourself-and-the-voices-of-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"Senses, Seeing Yourself, and the Voices of Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Still<\/a><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Remember
\nThat to have the eyes of an artist,
\nThat can be enough,
\nThe ear of a poet,
\nThat can be enough.
\nThe soul of a human
\njust pointed
\nin the direction of the divine,
\nthat can be more than enough.
\nI tell you this to remind myself.
\nEvery gesture is an act of creation.
\nEven empty spaces and silence
\ncan be the wings and voices of angels.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Michele Linfante)<\/p>\n

Not<\/a> from whiskey river:<\/p>\n

Salthouse<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we walked up the hill above Salthouse
\nand saw, looking down where we\u2019d been<\/p>\n

ourselves on the beach waving back —
\nwe were here and there and no-place<\/p>\n

coming and going at once, perceiving
\nthe speckled clouds as sleeping seals,<\/p>\n

as we dipped our toes in the breeze
\nand watched from the hill\u2019s shoreline<\/p>\n

a kestrel come in with the tide,
\nand hold his stillness open<\/p>\n

over the ship weathervane
\nof a church that was floating and drowned,<\/p>\n

his shadow on the ground beneath him
\nthe anchor that kept him aloft.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(by Charles Bennett<\/a>)<\/p>\n

And:<\/p>\n

We shall not cease from exploration
\nAnd the end of all our exploring
\nWill be to arrive where we started
\nAnd know the place for the first time.
\nThrough the unknown, unremembered gate
\nWhen the last of earth left to discover
\nIs that which was the beginning;
\nAt the source of the longest river
\nThe voice of the hidden waterfall
\nAnd the children in the apple-tree
\nNot known, because not looked for
\nBut heard, half-heard, in the stillness
\nBetween two waves of the sea.
\nQuick now, here, now, always\u2014
\nA condition of complete simplicity
\n(Costing not less than everything)
\nAnd all shall be well and
\nAll manner of thing shall be well
\nWhen the tongues of flame are in-folded
\nInto the crowned knot of fire
\nAnd the fire and the rose are one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(T.S. Eliot, from Four Quartets: Little Gidding<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

Finally, speaking of empty space and the voices of angels…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Usually when we hear the phrase “voice of an angel,” it describes a woman’s ethereal voice. (I remember Charlotte Church<\/a>‘s voice described that way, for example; indeed, it was the title of her debut album.) Yet angels aren’t universally acknowledged to be the embodiment of sweetness and light, and these darker angels often appear in male form. In a Season 5 (1998) episode of The X-Files<\/em>, Scully came face to face with a particularly terrifying (and supposedly benign) one:<\/p>\n

[Father McCue shows Scully a book]\nFather McCue:<\/strong> “Is that what you saw? It’s a Seraphim, an angel, with four faces. Those of a man, a lion, an eagle and a bull. In the story the angel descends from Heaven and fathers four children with a mortal woman. Their offspring are the Nepholim, the Fallen Ones. They have the souls of angels, but they weren’t meant to be. They’re deformed, tormented. So the Lord sends the Seraphim to Earth to bring back the souls of the Nepholim, to keep the Devil from claiming them as his own.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Transcript from Red Wolf’s excellent “X-Files Episode Guide” site<\/a>. YouTube has a video of that episode’s teaser\/opening<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

But some men have the voices of benign angels. And sometimes you can hear such a voice singing of — yearning for — empty space. And if you’re really lucky, you can hear such a voice, singing such a song, over the vision of a more-than-natural being in the process of discovering himself:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Lyrics:<\/p>\n

Up on the Roof<\/strong><\/p>\n

(words and music by Gerry Goffin and Carole King,
\nperformed by The Drifters)<\/p>\n

When this old world starts getting me down
\nAnd people are just too much for me to face
\nI climb way up to the top of the stairs
\nAnd all my cares just drift right into space
\nOn the roof, it’s peaceful as can be
\nAnd there the world below can’t bother me
\nLet me tell you now<\/p>\n

When I come home feelin’ tired and beat
\nI go up where the air is fresh and sweet (up on the roof)
\nI get away from the hustling crowd
\nAnd all that rat-race noise down in the street (up on the roof)
\nOn the roof, the only place I know
\nWhere you just have to wish to make it so
\nLet’s go up on the roof (up on the roof)<\/p>\n

[brief instrumental]<\/em><\/p>\n

At night the stars put on a show for free
\nAnd, darling, you can share it all with me<\/p>\n

I keep a-tellin’ you<\/p>\n

Right smack dab in the middle of town
\nI’ve found a paradise that’s trouble proof (up on the roof)
\nAnd if this world starts getting you down
\nThere’s room enough for two
\nUp on the roof (up on the roof)
\nUp on the roo-oo-oof (up on the roof)
\nOh, come on, baby (up on the roof)
\nOh, come on, honey (up on the roof)<\/p>\n[Fade]\n

Everything is all right (up on the roof)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(If you’re a purist, you can see The Drifters themselves<\/a> lip-syncing the song in a 1950s-era “video.” Note that the <\/em>brrrr-rrrrrr sound which you can hear in th background, starting at around 1:35 or so, isn’t the purr of a cellphone; it’s the cooing of the pigeons on the roof in the video.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From whiskey river: Remember That to have the eyes of an artist, That can be enough, The ear of a poet, That can be enough. The soul of a human just pointed in the direction of the divine, that can be more than enough. I tell you this to remind myself. Every gesture is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-xc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2069,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions\/2069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}