Aweikinin 9/10/2014
From 1 John 4:7-8
H,
I got into some Coltrane this morning. I know I should
work my way up the masters, not being a jazz fan and all, but what a way to
start. I was inspired by this quote I saw of him talking about the love
supreme. It hit me in ways that made me want to experience this curious
wildfire that is horn and trumpet and stinging piano and that rough edge. Rough
yet smooth, like the whole thing is filtered through refined sand.
The funny thing I find about jazz is how background it
can be. It can be so into the mood and shape the mood of a place that the
events around it seem like the main thing happening. It creates this rare
atmosphere then acts like it did not. Here come the drums that rattle and
sizzle. It is so evoking of something that it has to be felt. It has to be
listened to on its own terms. You cannot force it. At first it sounds like they
are just making up stuff. Which, they are, of course but it has the strange
other sense that this is not planned, like this is brilliance happening on the
spur. You know how I like lyric in song above the music but this is all about
the music. And it is supreme.
Of course, God is the love supreme. Coltrane’s quote says
as much. Love as a concept or high ideal or personal vendetta against life has
been the cause of much pain in the world. But love as action, as things to do
and places to be and way to act and music and words and consideration and,
finally, freedom from self can only do wonders in this fractured world. I remember
in university when we would all gather in the middle of the house and listen to
ungodly music and talk, mostly, about godly things. I would always fall asleep.
That is love to me in some action: where I am comfortable and I can sleep. When
that hellcat I love comes around and we settle into a cuddle, I fall asleep. That
has happened with no other before. I usually need a community of friends to
feel that safe. Of course she complains. She thinks we should be talking and
arguing and being cattish. She has no idea that in that semblance of God, we
both touch the love supreme.