About thirty minutes ago, I sat down in my apartment to think as dusk was coming on. It hit me that I have lived in this place longer than any place I have ever inhabited, including childhood, moving in on August 1, 1998. On my left, I can see pictures of my basketball teams through the years. Turning my head to the right, I see photographs of my family on both sides, many of whom died before I was conceived and some others who are no longer living. I pondered the fact that the students in my Gospels classes, my oldest students, were mostly born the year I moved to Texas. And I wondered how the years, one day at a time, passed by so quickly.
While the light faded as I sat, I thought of the haunting poem at the end of The Moody Blues' classic Nights In White Satin, entitled Late Lament. I assumed it was written centuries ago and read on the record by one of those announcers whose voices show up in documentaries. But actually, it was penned by drummer Graeme Edge and recited by keyboard player Mike Pinder. If you've never heard it, it goes like this:
Breathe deep the gathering gloom,
Watch lights fade from every room.
Bedsitter people look back and lament,
Another day's useless energy spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.
Bedsitter people look back and lament,
Another day's useless energy spent.
Impassioned lovers wrestle as one,
Lonely man cries for love and has none.
New mother picks up and suckles her son,
Senior citizens wish they were young.
Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white,
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion.
Removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey and yellow white,
But we decide which is right.
And which is an illusion.
Without dissecting any deep thoughts about the ode, it's always seemed almost Ecclesiastical in its mourning the ebbing tide of a life. In one of my 8th grade classes today, we talked about how Gabriel told Mary the kingdom of her son would never end and we briefly touched on the concept of eternity. I told them I can comprehend it going forward but not backwards. (I also told them how in some years, we would never say the word eternity out loud but only whisper it. You know, "Eternity...by Calvin Klein.") Amazingly, they think I'm funny. In Ecclesiastes 3:11. Solomon teaches this about time:
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Sometimes, I miss the beautiful part of everything; I see the flaws and focus on the irritations. But what was vital today often is not tomorrow. I also realize that as we get older, time speeds up even though we can never prove it scientifically. We get one fleeting physical life and one forever spiritual one. There is a direct correlation between the two. I can't waste the one I'm in the middle of. There are no do-overs.
To listen to Late Lament, click below or copy and paste link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWAmICTFSok
Applicable quote of the day:
"For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity."
William Penn
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com
*Diagram borrowed from: http://robertbrian.wordpress.com
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