A Late Night Thought(s)

Slanted, pink sunlight illuminates all,
Long ago, the light faded and the waves are just sounds,
Late night TV looks for meaning, ensconced in a PBS fundraiser.
I see people looking for meaning in motion, constant entertainment or new experiences,
others looking for meaning in philosophy or religion or gargantuan rocks strewn by the sea.
But is the pursuit of meaning short sighted?
Not seeing the whole puzzle.
Is meaning just a convenient summarization of something much larger?
Like capturing the air with a bag and thinking you've got it all, the scents, the sounds, the sky.
So what is beyond meaning, beyond the pursuit of explanations?
Is it still satisfying? Is it still marketable?
What if meaning is just a photo, at 10x magnification, that misses the scene and losses the context?
So where do we go from here?

I have been remiss in writing this blog entry for some time. Hopefully, I will still have some pertinent or at least accurate thoughts on the subject. Over the last several months, we've watched a couple of movies about Bob Dylan:

• I'm Not There a film by Todd Haynes that is inspired by Bob Dylan's life and features the stellar performance of Cate Blanchett, among others
  
• No Direction Home the wonderful biography by Martin Scorsese
• The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival 1963-1965 which is a powerful look at the classic Dylan.
  

Bob Dylan is fascinating in many respects, because of his mystique and his insightful and poetic songwriting. While perhaps some poetic elites may have denigrated his poetry in the past, his lyrics are now studied at many universities, in multiple contexts. His friendship with Alan Ginsberg and Ginsberg respect for Dylan's writing offer credence to this statement, though Ginsberg did feel Dylan betrayed or abandoned his ideal of the politically and socially conscious poet.

Bob Dylan did consciously start out to become successful and to make himself into his image of a songwriter like the previous generation (like Woody Guthrie ). His music mastery and gift are sometimes overlooked, but apparently he could listen to a song once and commit it to memory. People looked for deep meaning and obscure messages in many of his songs, yet he was unaware of the depth attributed to them. I think he was like a prism of society and culture that brilliantly reflected the yearnings, grievances, failings and desires of Western civilization at that time (and subsequent generations). He was able to eloquently focus the cross-currents and turmoil of group thought in a laser like precision that built upon the successful methods of folk song writers of past.

Most of all, Bob Dylan was much like a medium of old, a channeler of art, music and poetry. From his innate gifts and his pursuit of a solid base from which to project, he was able to channel this powerful spirit and crystal clear images through his songs.