At the
center tranquil
Set to the tune of Shenandoah, aka Across the Wide Missouri, this
other song appeals to a deeper cord than the mellow Try to Remember in
yesterday’s musing. We used to reside
within the beltway on the Virginia side so we were always bombarded with news
from the Shenandoah Valley. The tune
itself almost became the State song but did not pass muster in the Legislature. It appears that the word “Shenandoah”
referred to an Indian Chief, verboten to the Potomac’s gentility.
The tune became popular to people of my generation with Jimmy Stewart
in the 1965 movie Shenandoah, and the soundtrack of the Cinerama widescreen,
How the West was Won!
The traditional tune wandered far and wide - a Shenandoah Valley origin
segued to a Civil War gray soldier pining for home by the Missouri River. Flatboat men of the river developed a chanty
(pronounced shanty), a work song that is echoed down river, like in
the Mississippi’s Showboat familiar to many: "Tote that barge! Lift that bale!
Git a little drunk, An' you land in jail... "
We will not go into the Missouri pronunciation (Mi-zoor-i-eye to the
Illini, and Mi-zoor-uh to Oklahom-uh) since that is not pertinent other than as
an interesting aside.
I thank colleagues of kindred spirit who penned the following lyrics so
I do not have to.
Universe, illumination,
all unknown, absurd assurance
Everywhere is found life's meaning,
and I, I am the way
at the center tranquil.
Those of us
who grew up with the barefoot boy of Nazareth remember Johannine attribution to
his dialogue as having said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The admonition we got was more of the “go and
do likewise” tone, rather than the idolatrous adulation carried in the dense
medieval traditions of most Christian denominations.
There's no hope, yet all is hopeful,
then no cares, there are no problems
No enemies no earthly foes,
and I, I am the struggle
at the center tranquil.
In the
prologue of Nikos Kazantzakis’ early 1920s Spiritual
Exercises, it says: “We come from a dark abyss,
we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.” Heady stuff. “As soon as we are born the return begins, at
once the setting forth and the coming back; we die in every moment. Because of
this many have cried out: The goal of life is death! But as soon as we are born
we begin the struggle to create, to
compose, to turn matter into life.…” With
the imagery of the crimson line in an evolutionary ascent, the human spirit pushes
the struggle to turn matter into life
Pulsing exhilaration,
everything's become a blessing
Embraced by joy a dance of rapture,
and I, I am the stillness
at the center tranquil.
Parting words
in religious rites I grew up with include the passing of peace. “The Peace of God is with you,” is echoed
regularly in Christian mass and service of worship. Peace, of course, is the one that “passeth
understanding”! In contemporary
psychological therapy of stress management disciplines is “centering”, called
“contemplative prayer” in the monastic tradition. It is the call for stillness to linger in our
souls.
Gloriously condemned to die:
life is new, a great resurgence
Community with all the faithful
and I, I am forever
at the center tranquil.
Kennedy went
for outer space, where no one had gone before.
Obama just launched an inventory on the content of what lies between our
ears as today’s frontier of knowledge. This
is long overdue. I know more about the
constellations as I do the fields of dreams and imaginations in my own
head. But community is the last
frontier. Though I am no longer in the
business of reforming the structures of oikos,
a few dear friends are demonstrating with their own lives what is called Christian Resurgence Circles!
Who has the
chutzpah to say, I am the way, the struggle, and the stillness! As we have previously commented, we are
predisposed to condemn all forms of self-centeredness as egotistical. This is not, however, about the ego. It is the affirmation of one’ selfhood. And in community, I will be faithful to the
end!
At the center
tranquil is no early evening walk in the park.
It trudges the way – before, here, and after. It wrestles the struggle to be comprehensive
and inclusive of all directions including height and depth that is waged in the
lifestyle of stillness, the freedom of my soul. Who shall live with me in that
land?
It is a showboat,
not a slow boat to China, at the center tranquil.
Jaime Vergara
pinoypanda2031@aol.com
yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!