This week I have been particularly inspired by the latest from U2 which cumulated at the end of the week with an impromptu live performance by the band on the top of the BBC Broadcasting House to promote the launch of their 12th studio album No Line On The Horizon. (see Magnificent)
I was especially moved by radio play of the song “White as Snow” which describes the wintery landscape of a soldier dying from a bomb in the snow of Afghanistan.The song's melody is based on an old hymn, Oh Come, Emmanuel, that, according to The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, was composed by "an unknown author, circa 1100".
I was especially moved by radio play of the song “White as Snow” which describes the wintery landscape of a soldier dying from a bomb in the snow of Afghanistan.The song's melody is based on an old hymn, Oh Come, Emmanuel, that, according to The Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal, was composed by "an unknown author, circa 1100".
There is something about the song that catches you, causes you to ache & brings you to a sacred place where you sense the silent passage of a more peaceful horizon beyond the macabre futility of war. It hints of brutal divisons, forsken in the eyes of God, roads that refuse strangers where the only forgiveness of the bloodshed comes from a heart white as snow.
Once I knew there was a love divine
then came a time I thought it
knew me not.
Who can forgive forgiveness when forgiveness is not,
only the land as white as snow.
And the water, it was icy
as it washed over me
and the moon shined above me.
Now this dry ground it bears no fruit at all
only ? under a crescent moon.
The road refuses strangers,
the land, the seeds we sow
where might we find the land as white as snow.
As boys we would go hunting in the woods
to sleep the night shooting out the stars
now the voes of every passing stranger
every face we cannot know
For only a heart could be as white as snow,
for only a heart could be as white as snow
U2 have always been a leading voice in the world for both faith and social causes. This album would seem to bring a subtle emphasis on their stance on war.
then came a time I thought it
knew me not.
Who can forgive forgiveness when forgiveness is not,
only the land as white as snow.
And the water, it was icy
as it washed over me
and the moon shined above me.
Now this dry ground it bears no fruit at all
only ? under a crescent moon.
The road refuses strangers,
the land, the seeds we sow
where might we find the land as white as snow.
As boys we would go hunting in the woods
to sleep the night shooting out the stars
now the voes of every passing stranger
every face we cannot know
For only a heart could be as white as snow,
for only a heart could be as white as snow
U2 have always been a leading voice in the world for both faith and social causes. This album would seem to bring a subtle emphasis on their stance on war.
official Site U2.com
Bono once commented on Ubuntu ~
"Essentially, what it means is 'I am because we are.' And it's about the interdependence, how we need each other and we have a stake in each other. One part of the community can't thrive truly while the other part of the community is in the dirt. In tending to them, we will be better off ourselves. It's that simple. Ubuntu."
