Saturday, September 3, 2011

Hallelujah



I am linking another song.

You know this song. Even if you say you don't, you do.  This song, sung by Jeff Buckley, was the unofficial, official song of 9/11.  I heard it everywhere.  At the time it seemed apropos but if you really listened to it, like REALLY listen, it's all about King David and Bathsheba getting it on.  And some Samson and Delilah thrown in  for good measure.

Hallelujah is a kinda of a biblical song.  Sung by not so biblical people.

A song that people seem to cling to when something awful happens.
A hurricane.
An earthquake.
A terrorist attack. 

But it's a song about betrayal and sex.

It's weird.  Or just weird to me.

Part of me wants to ask- Do you remember 9/11?  Which is of course a dumb question.
What I really want to know is do you REMEMBER 9/11?
Do you remember what time you woke up?
And how you felt at that moment?
Do you remember the clear blue sky?
Did you know the conditions across the country were perfect?
And we all looked up and saw the same sky?  We did.  Everyone's sky that day was blue.
  

Is it weird that a decade later I watch clips of that day and I pray for the planes not to hit the buildings?  I do.  I know it is going to happen and I don't want it to.  If I pray hard enough maybe they won't.
And when they do I jump.  It still catches me.  And I cry.  Because seeing 9/11 still makes me weep.
And I think about how everything made no sense.
It still makes no sense.

And when things go bad we cling to the things that make sense.  And we sing 'Hallelujah' because that is what we know.   And it makes sense, even if it makes no sense at all.


 Because even though it's a song about sex and betrayal and hurt and being tied to a chair and cutting someone's hair; through all that we all still sing Hallelujah.  Because it's what we do.  It makes sense.

And now it doesn't seem so weird after all.







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