Great little website where Nick Cave answers some fan questions. If only spiritual leaders could be this direct and personal.
We all needed to draw ourselves back to a state of wonder. My way was to write myself there. I sat and wrote and wrote, and in doing so I found a way back, or at least a way through the veil of grief, to the other side. I felt very strongly that the communal suffering, and our ability to transcend it, was the thing that held us together. This was not some pessimistic worldview, quite the opposite really. It became clear that as human beings we have enormous capabilities that allow us to rise above our suffering ā that we are hardwired for transcendence. This was an acute realisation that changed the nature of our relationship to everything.
Fireflies in a jar. Music. Saį¹sÄra. Connections.
Jesus lying in his motherās arms
Is a photon released from a dying star
We move through the forest at night
The sky is full of exit wounds of light
Everything we need is just too far
We are fireflies a child has trapped in a jar
I am here and you are where you are
I am here and you are where you are
-Nick Cave, from the link in the OP
Well they call me āWilliam the Pleaserā
I sold opium, fireworks, and lead
Now Iām telling my troubles to strangers
When the shadows get long Iāll be dead
Her hair was as black as a bucket of tar
Her skin as white as a cuttlefish bone
Iāve left Texas to follow Lucinda
Now Iāll never see heaven or home
I made a wish on sliver of moonlight
A sly grin and a bow full of stars
Iām like a kid who captures a firefly
And leaves it only to die in the jar.
-Tom Waits
Thatās really amazing, I would never have guessed it. The universal power of a great story! (Also nice to hear him pronounce Kisa properly, I was half-expecting to hear ākaiserā or something!)
A couple of weeks ago, at one of our Dhammapada classes, we were discussing right speech, and how to deal with toxicity online. I couldnāt resist reading this message from the Red letter Files, which has been the subject of a Guardian article:
For those of us of a Certain Generation in Australia, Nick was a part of our growing up. But it was quite moving to see how a class full off people, most of whom had never heard of him, immediately responding to the wisdom and care that he puts into his words.
