The Angels Cried – Between Myths

Yes, this is me.  On December 23rd I was performing on stage for the Christmas Gala put on by the university where I now teach in my retirement.  I am a “laowai” or foreigner in a foreign country.  I guess you could say I am in an “in between” place.  During a visit to my place several weeks ago, the people at the foreign affairs office saw my guitar standing in a corner.  Soon after the visit I was asked if I would perform at the Christmas Gala.  I agreed as I thought that it would encourage me to play more on this new guitar.  What to play was the issue that I faced and soon found myself dithering between John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas – War is Over,” and Alan Jackson’s “The Angels Cried.”  In the end, “Angels” won out.  I thought that it was much easier to do in terms of sound since Lennon’s song would be best with a choral group adding their voices to the main vocals.  Maybe next year . . .

The Angels Cried – Alan Jackson & Alison Krauss

They came from near,they came from far
Following a distance star to where He lay
Not being sure of what it mean, but
Knowing it was heaven sent,
they made their way

And the creatures gathered ’round
And didn’t make a sound
And the angels cried

The angels knew what was to come
The reason God had sent His son
From up above
It filled their hearts with joy to see and
Knowing of His destiny
Came tears of love

And the creatures gathered ’round
And didn’t make a sound
And the angels cried

I’ve often thought about that night
And wondered if they realized
That star so bright
Was sent to tell all the land
The Son of God would soon become
The Son of Man

And the creatures gathered ’round
And didn’t make a sound
And the angels cried

And the Angels Cried
And the Angels Cried

The song is supposed to be about Christmas, but for me it is more than about Christmas in a Christian sense.  For me it is about being in a place between myths, being in a place of darkness where one sees a light that beckons one to move out of the darkness.  I lost the myth of Christmas when I lost a belief in Christianity and in all religion.  The journey toward light has to take place if one is to be reborn, if one is to transform.  And that light becomes the new myth.  The journey is about building a new myth.  James Hollis explains it much better than I can, so I will let his words speak for me here.

“A person caught between myths, or a culture between myths, is in peril, but that is the only place to be when nature, divinity or the soul commands.  One person said to me, while going through abandonment and disorientation, “I could never understand the idea of resurrection before this.  Now I understand that I had to die in order to become myself. I was so identified with my marriage, with my parenting role and comfortable life that I didn’t know I had not yet come to be myself.”

Such a person does not choose to die.  Her old myth was dying on her.  That mortal transit is chosen by the gods, by fate or by the Self, yet such a person receives a blessing from the experience by coming to a new sense of self, a new mythology.” (Hollis, Mythologems, p. 64)

The tears in the darkness thus become, tears of joy and of hope.  This was my message as I introduced and sang to all of those present at the performance.  Yes, a new child is being born, and that child is you, it is me.  What we lose on the journey, that which we mourn, is the sacrifice for what we are given as a gift – a Christmas gift of hope and a new myth.