O friends, no more these sounds!
Let us sing more cheerful songs,
more full of joy!
Joy, bright spark of divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
Fire-inspired we tread
Thy sanctuary.
Thy magic power re-unites
All that custom has divided,
All men become brothers
Under the sway of thy gentle wings.
Whoever has created
An abiding friendship,
Or has won
A true and loving wife,
All who can call at least one soul theirs,
Join in our song of praise;
But any who cannot must creep tearfully
Away from our circle.
All creatures drink of joy
At nature's breast.
Just and unjust
Alike taste of her gift;
She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine,
A tried friend to the end.
Even the worm can feel contentment,
And the cherub stands before God!
Gladly, like the heavenly bodies
Which He set on their courses
Through the splendor of the firmament;
Thus, brothers, you should run your race,
As a hero going to conquest.
You millions, I embrace you.
This kiss is for all the world!
Brothers, above the starry canopy
There must dwell a loving Father.
Do you fall in worship, you millions?
World, do you know your creator?
Seek him in the heavens;
Above the stars must He dwell.
I have been reading the book Griffin and Sabine lately, and
once again I am captivated by its timeless ingenuity in marrying the art of
letter writing/postcard and art of keeping a diary/sketchbook, in a narrative
fiction that centers on love and self-discovery. But what absorbs me more is the
underlying concept of a single person being complete unto self, that there is
no other to complement us, the dissolution of idea of the other and I, as two
different bodies because we are all complete as it is, both energies reside in
us, but we only learn of it by going through the difficult process of knowing
ourselves. These are the bold ideas that Nick Bantock, the author, wants his
readers to deeply understand.
If we survey the theories created out by fans around the
world on how to make sense of the story, the most interesting one would be that
Griffin and Sabine are existing in different time planes, because in the second
book installment, Griffin and Sabine ultimately shared a common space, Griffin’s
apartment, but we found out in a post card left by Sabine that she was waiting
for Griffin, but he never arrived. Although in Griffin’s reality, Sabine must still
be in the apartment when he opened the door, as indicated in the date on the
postcard. It is not unlike the Korean movie Il Mare which was adopted by Hollywood,
The Lake House.
Therefore, we have time here as the main driving force in
the plot of the story. It’s like time has become another character in the narrative.
And sometimes we have to suspend rationality when we enter these kinds of
stories. Anyways, what’s really interesting is how Bantock explained his own
take in his story, that Griffin has been writing all these postcards and
letters by himself. Trying to express himself in two different pulses. The feminine
and the masculine, maybe an exercise to voice the often times differing ideas
of the two, making it tangible as we visually can differentiate the styles of feminine
art strokes from the masculine ones. Visual creations can make it easier for
someone to filter the two, to set aside the two opposing forces, even the font
styles can give a clue which one is the feminine and which is the masculine. Maybe
that’s it, Bantock wants to detail, to profile, to make a clear distinction
between the two before molding them again into one. Marrying the two forces can
be potent, as Bantock said, it can be eventually about higher spiritual
awakening or an exercise on awareness where the artist as a creator must know
both forces intimately.
I don’t know if I am making any sense.
The basic plot of three-installment book is that Griffin was
desperately praying for a muse, and as with the unknown mysteries of life, his
wish came true, in the personality of Sabine. But the astonished Griffin couldn’t
really believe that a muse really exists and on top of it, she is writing him
letters and postcards! So, in his great terror, he fled his house as Sabine resolved
to visit him. He couldn’t face the reality that he is going to be face to face
with the muse he’s been dreaming of, that’s why he immediately decided to make
a pilgrimage to far flung countries, to find himself and to find the strength
to finally meet her.
In one of his letters to Sabine, Griffin said:
I’m running from you, but I’m also searching for a way to
accept my fate, which I know to be bound to yours.
This sentence sounds very romantic but also it can be a desperate
plea to be free from the fate which can take over him completely. In a way, he
will be bound, so his freedom will be limited.
Anyways, my mind is a bit muddled now, must be the full
moon. Leaving you guys now, don’t forget to look at the majestic moon tonight.
Imagine you
are walking along your own path, in your own pace, knowing full well that you
are following your own trail, fully and wholly committed to being alone in that
kind of peaceful journey. You have a clear road that you can see from your own
vantage point. Whatever the weather, be it sunny, rainy, windy, stormy the path
is clear and it stretches far and wide but it doesn’t scare you because you know
that you are just on the right road. You say to yourself, however long the
distance is, you are secured of it until the bitter end because you know that deep
in yourself you have found the required stability and determination to cover
the distance, whatever it takes. You have it in yourself to surmount the
challenges, you have it in yourself to conquer the demons of those belonging to
yourself, of those belonging to others, of those belonging to the world. You
know you have it. You are so sure you have it in yourself, you have reserves of
those inner strengths, you know which ones are those that you have to grow, those
to develop or those to master, you are so complete unto yourself. Being full of
wisdom, you don’t keep your weaknesses from yourself, instead you are painfully
aware of them and you are utilizing time and experiences to at least turn these
weaknesses into a receptacle for transformation, not only for yourself but for
others. You have found how to use the power of weaknesses to heal, to connect
and to observe. That is a kind of power you know you have. You heal people
whatever it takes. There are no rules on how to heal another soul, all you know
is that you have to heal them and you have healed them, no matter what it
takes. Healing may come from light, healing may come from dark, whatever the
source, you know where it will lead to. Magical, mysterious but it does the
work. Healing becomes you. You wield it responsibly by your own system, by your
own dictates, own creed, because you were chosen and given that power. And of course,
you have more, you know more, you feel more and you see more. That is who you
are. And you know it. You go on with life, following the road with this full
knowledge of who you are. So secure of your way.
You belong
to yourself. And you are so sure that nobody can take that resolve away from
you.
Then along
the way, you will find another kind of fellow traveler, you thought you were
alone in this path, but somehow there’s someone there all along. The fellow is
someone you intuitively know you share some traits with. You were alone for so
long, so curiously you were drawn to that traveler. You crossed paths with
someone you aren’t expecting at all. And then you learned a little from each
other, you started to talk, to exchange ideas, to know more of each other. But
you are not sure about this pleasant surprise. Definitely, it is something new,
when you talk, some curiosities are satisfied, some are validated, but somehow you
want to know more. But the fellow of course has own set of rules, set of ways, own
system. You grow more and more curious and perhaps fond of the fellow. And the
fellow curiously enough, found a door along the path and opened it and shut the
door from the inside.
Question,
will you open the door and follow the fellow or just continue with your own
journey, set on your own ways, secured in your own path, alone?
But of
course, you are curious. You try to quietly inspect the door. Listened intently
through the handle. Peering from the small crack at the bottom. You try to
intuit. You try to use your powers, selfishly this time to find out more. Did
you find out more?
Now, you have
to think. If you open the door, there are infinite scenarios waiting. One would
be, it can be a closed room with four walls, empty room, devoid of anything.
The usual physical expectations, the safest one. The next one would be, a door
that opens to watery surface, enough to drown your knees. The waters here can be
calming but you only see the surface. Or the weird one is that you can open the
door and find yourself at the seabed, under the sea, the ocean has eventually
swallowed you whole. Fortunately, you know how to swim.
So, what
would you do next?
