song for theme #7A: Mysticism

                                             “Words Get in the Way” by Stephen P. Cook

to be sung to the tune of “The Games People Play” by Joe South

How words get in the way

Piece by piece we have our say

Mighty tough to put away

And get your head free

We see the world part by part¹

Not as a whole work of art

Naming things gave it a start

Describing reality²

Then we had to step outside

Being apart, Oneness died

With words we hit our stride

They’ve served us well

They helped us make maps³

Put on our thinking caps

Meet goals, take victory laps

Compile stories to tell

With words we relive the past

Chart events from first to last

Time begins with a blast

To eternal reality

Your ego’s like a bright sun

It dims if words you shun

Glimpse the Eternal One⁴

If you get your head free

If ego baggage you sell

And give into nature’s will

If in the now you can dwell

You’ll find the Over Soul

If with words you don’t fight

Subject and object unite

In wise silence⁵ take delight

Meet the soul of the whole

What if you really tried

Banish thoughts, from them hide

Trade apart for back inside

Feel the power of now⁶

Sail sea of joy far from port⁷

To the Mind of God pay court

To describe it words fall short

I’ll use only one…wow!

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS

1—This line appears in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay The Over-Soul.

2—Reality can be defined as the totality of all things, structures (actual and conceptual), events (past and present) and phenomena,

      whether observable or not. It is what a worldview attempts to describe or map.

3—Conceptual maps

4—A phrase the author likes to think Einstein used (although what he wrote is translated from German “the old One”).

5—Emerson’s phrase

6—The Power of Now is the title of a book by Eckert Tolle.

7—This line honors two 1960s’ songs with mystical overtones: the Stevie Winwood / Blind Faith song “Sea of Joy,” and the Gary

      Brooker / Keith Reid / Procol Harum song “A Salty Dog.”

Comment: feeling this ultimate connectedness can perhaps provide some emotional armor vs. the pain of alienation / loneliness. (See the related discussion in part IIIa, on the first page of that section.)