Sunrise-Sunset

Friends,

As I watched a beautiful, pastel blue-yellow sunrise this morning over the Cascades the lilting, poignant song, “Sunrise-Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof also arose in my mind and heart. The simple melody and lyrics capture well the feeling that swirls and settles like a misty cloud in both my conscious and unconscious during these bitter-sweet, Covid-defined days. Although written as a wedding song sung by Tevye and Golde at the wedding of their oldest daughter, the song also has a more universal appeal to our current, suspended, yet evolving sense of time: “Sunrise, sunset, swiftly flow the years, one season [month] following another, laiden with happiness and tears.” We live in a period of time when our hearts and minds shuttle between memories of the past, our uneasy present, and an anxious, uncertain future. Numbers of people have commented to me that time has taken on new dimensions during the Covid lockdown. One result is that relationships and community have become more precious and intimate even as the horrors of the pandemic claim lives and threaten jobs and the economy.

The lyrics of “Sunrise-Sunset” also have a special personal resonance for me. Like many of us, I have spent hours these past eight or nine months since the lockdown (can you believe it’s been that long?) communicating through the marvels of a Zoom meeting. I not only have been united and reunited with my family and friends, I have often watched them change before my eyes over the weeks. I have even watched myself age and change to the point of sometimes being surprised to see my own aging face in one of the boxes on the screen. ("Who is that older man there in box three?”) But what an incredible gift these visits have been with you all. There has been an especially precious sweetness in being able to visit so regularly, and often intimately, with my “tween” grandchildren as I watch them in nearly real time, right before my eyes,  physically, emotionally, and capably mature from visit to visit. So the song poignantly captures the surprising passing of time for all of us as we reflect back on our lives: “Is that the little girl I carried? Is that the little boy at play? When did she get to be a beauty? I don’t remember growing older; when did they?”

What is also fascinating about our present sunrise-sunset time is its impact on our planet. New forms of relationships, government, agriculture, economics, communication…the list is almost endless…are rising while the old ways fade slowly, usually reluctantly, into sunset. The comparison gets complicated, of course, when we compare the reliability of the planetary sunrises and sunsets with the irregularity of historical time, but deep in our ancient souls we sense a timeless and reliable rhythm of life, of the rising and setting, the ebb and flow, of our own life and the lives around us even during the current tumultuous era.

Maybe one of the most profound gifts of this liminal time has been to reorient us to time and place, maybe to remind us that we are off stride as we have been hurdling into an unsustainable planetary future. We are now challenged to find what to preserve, what to change, and what simply must be abandoned, both in our own lives and as a nation and species. There is no real precedent for how to deal simultaneously with climate change, a pandemic, a global clash of political ideologies and inequities, and the anxieties and fears caused by all the chaos and anxiety. So, my fellow space travelers, we have no choice but to humbly and hopefully keep our heads up into the foggy storm of a future before us. And the spirit of The Fiddler on the Roof, and, indeed, the perseverance of the Jewish people, provide a model for the meaning of this kind of resilience and wisdom of an ever-flowing span of life.

Like Teyve wondering what wisdom he has to offer his children, I am searching for similar sources of wisdom and resilience I believe will ultimately save us from ourselves. Surely science and technology have much to offer. And human imagination and creativity will provide critical adaptive ideas and innovations. But I am convinced our salvation will finally depend on a change of spiritual consciousness. Can we go from competition to cooperation? Can we evolve where nonviolence and deep reverence for life will be the norm? Can we return to the ancient awareness of our indigenous people who live as intimate, equal family members with Brother Sun and Sister Moon among a kin-dom with other species? The evolution will likely be more or a wrench than an easy transition, but that must be the way forward, and I offer this vision as a hopeful legacy to my future generations.

“Sunrise, sunset, one season follows another, laiden with happiness and tears.” As Teyve reminds us, what we are enduring now is part of the dynamic ebb and flow of Life and what it means to be poignantly vulnerable and present to life as part of the human condition. So, in response, we somehow need to affirm the miracle and the poignancy of it all and join Tyve in saying, “L’chain,” to life!

In peace,

Tom

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  Fiddler on the Roof: "Sunrise-Sunset"

(Tevye)
Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
(Golde)
I don't remember growing older
When did they?
(Tevye)
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
(Golde)
Wasn't it yesterday
When they were small?
(Men)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
(Women)
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze
(All)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears
(Tevye)
What words of wisdom can I give them?
How can I help to ease their way?
(Golde)
Now they must learn from one another
Day by day
(Perchik)
They look so natural together
(Hodel)
Just like two newlyweds should be
(Perchik & Hodel)
Is there a canopy in store for me?
(All)
Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears