AFTER THE BIG RAIN
After the big rain,
After everything has finished
The world is a river of hope
Beauty is here already
Until when will we keep on searching?After the big rain,
After everything had finished
You and I meet
God loves you more then you know
Until when will we look the other way?
Avishai sent me these lyrics not long ago and asked me to share some thoughts about them as an accompaniment to his new album. While our views on the subject cannot possibly be identical, I feel honored to have been invited to share my own.
The first thing to come to my mind when thinking about ‘Big Rains’ is the archetypal flood of the Bible, where god wiped everyone out except for the righteous Noah and his companions. ‘Wicked were the people…’ God made them, but apparently imperfectly, so he decided to scrap his project and start all over again. God simply didn’t see it coming… He messed up and admitted it…
But why pay attention to a god who can’t see things coming? Why take him seriously? Perhaps his commandments are based on the very same imperfections that let him create sinners in the first place… His commandments may just be more bad experiments…
And did god’s homicidal flood help? Hast post-flood humanity been more righteous? Does the current world-situation reflect what a loving god can possibly be proud of?
Thus, to my mind, violent floods don’t seem to help much and I find it hard to accept our current natural and social disasters as being waves of godly warnings or wake-up calls. If there is a grand master plan, then it is far beyond our understanding and I’d bet my soul that we’re not at the center of it all.
But I do feel as though we’re at the tail-end of another type of flood, or ‘Big Rain’ if you will – and that is the flood of amusement, entertainment, diversion, distraction…
The amount of external stimuli we (citizens of industrial civilizations) have at our disposal is historically unparalleled and we seem to be reaching the flooding point…the overdose point…
The great kings, sultans and emperors of the past were able to indulge in their own theaters, orchestras, dancers and jesters, who eased and pleased their senses with frequent doses of pleasure. The poorer masses, however, had to remain content with each other’s limited wit, while only dreaming of access to their rulers’ indulgences.
But today we ALL have access to a constant flow of first-class entertainment, from all corners of the world. We carry around the freshest fruits of international genius right in our pockets. We can play, pause, skip, repeat and delete them at will – as though we finally possessed the magic scepters that eluded even our most priveleged ancestors.
And it’s actually becoming a bit frightening…
As the initial excitement disappears and the boredom inevitably returns, it quickly turns to panic, since we no longer know how to cure it. We can no longer just bombard it with more quantity, since we already have more quantity than we can possibly digest. We can already spend the rest of our lives feeding on infinite streams of amusement – we simply have so space for more.
What’s next? Where do we go from here? What can we possibly still look forward to after this flood of quantity and diversity?
And not only is the novelty wearing off, it often makes us feel insignificant, invisible, impotent…
We’re justifiably drawn apart from one another since we’re all more boring than the endless parade of stars and their amazing tricks. Indeed, even the stars themselves are usually more boring than their own highlights – and why bother with anything less than highlights?
How can we compete? How can we remain attractive and interesting? How can we distract each other from the endless ‘magic’ raining in from all directions?
We’re literally drowning in a sea of beauty…sinking into anonymity and irrelevance…
And the feeling isn’t fun…nor amusing…nor entertaining…
And, thus, another dead-end is discovered…another epic quest begins to die…
All crazes and races reach their peaks and die. The age-old arms race reached its peak with nukes and died. And now our age-old quest for ‘amusement’ has peaked, and has duly begun to die…
The pendulum of history is slowly swinging back to the ‘self’ – not in the sense of greed or self-centeredness, but in the sense of people looking inward rather than outward. Rediscovering the tangible magic of their immediate realities – even if they be ‘imperfect’ or ‘limited’.
Watch a baby being nursed to satisfaction, absolutely thrilled to suckle its imperfect mother’s milk…that most envious expression of absolute content… When was the last time you and I enjoyed that level of perfect bliss?
We’ve long been distracted by our epic quest for escape, but that quest is disappearing…and in the chilling vacuum it leaves behind we are surprisingly warmed by eternal pleasures long ignored…
We’re swinging back to square one, but with memories of the quest, and of the success, and of the flood… Swinging back more advanced and enlightened than ever before, since we are now equipped with a flooded thirst that allows for genuine indulgence…indulgence without the gnawing itch to look outward, since we now know that eternal happiness does not lie there…
The ‘Big Rain’ served a grand purpose by showing us just how limited it is… And we never would have truly known until we tried and succeeded…until we pursued constant ‘fun’ and succeeded – to the point of nausea…
I have nothing against indulgence. In fact, I’m a fan of it. I believe the pleasures of the world are meant to be enjoyed and tasted. But in moderation. Not because over-indulgence is evil, or immoral, or will bring about a godly flood, but because it simply kills the high and ruins the party…
That hangover preventing us from another drink…not warnings, threats, or hells and curses, but the hangover my friend… Quenching the thirst by flooding it! Peace by satiation!
Threats and repression breed the gnawing curiosity of forbidden fruit, but floods of pleasure leave behind knowledge and experience… Overindulgence teaching moderation… Overindulgence ushering in peace…calm…quiet…steady, sustainable indulgence…
Ignore the rush and craze around you…don’t hate it…don’t curse it…just ignore it for a while…and savor your rediscovered self…your imperfect thoughts…your imperfect feelings…your imperfect dreams…your imperfect love…your imperfect loved ones…
Stop fleeing…
There’s nowhere to run…
The flood has washed away the illusion…
And we’re still here…
Alive and kicking…
Perhaps more alive than ever before…
An historical milestone…
Our unprecedented moment…
Savor it…
Cherish…
And remember it…
Was this flood another one of the gods’ strategies? Or was it an automatic lesson from nature? Perhaps your own faith and life-philosophy can help you answer that question. But regardless of who or what was responsible, the ‘Big Rain’ has come. And it has shaken us up. And it has brought with it the seeds of a new era…
For me, After the Rain is a meditation on this new era.
Indulge!