Resistance and Songs – part 2

There is no clearer example of how music and songs can be a means for resistance than the Gaza Birds Singing, a group of children and young people who continue to gather in Gaza City under the most trying circumstances. There is a page on the official UN website about them, which talks about sacred space, saying that in a place stripped of necessities, the sound of music feels both surreal and sacred.

Through the engagement of their singing bodies and through the lighting of their fantasy, the Gaza Birds Singing help themselves stay alive. The truth is that any of the children and the adults that you see in any of their videos might be dead by now, killed by the cruelty of a criminal state invoking self-defense. But the truth is also that those who are alive can keep going because they are enabled to imagine a future through the music that they make.

There is a song by the Brazilian musician Toquinho which embodies similar qualities of aliveness, imagination, and hope in the future — just like the music of the Birds — while also including a deep awareness of mortality. Because of such a combination, I consider it to be a deeply sacred song, even though it makes no reference whatsoever to religious themes.

What makes the text and music of the song Aquarela so remarkable is the light-hearted way with which Toquinho is able to put together contrasting themes.

At the beginning, we are introduced to the sparkling imagination of a young person who hopes to get out of the severe limitations of his life. By the end of the song, we have the clear understanding that the future comes along fast. Soon all of one’s projects and fantasies will fade, just as aquarel paintings may do. But this awareness does not engender desperation, nor does it negate the importance of the imagination: it simply calls one to act on one’s dreams and do the best that one can.

Here is an English translation of the text:

On any sheet of paper I draw a yellow sun
And with five or six straight lines it’s easy to make a castle
I run the pencil around my hand and give myself a glove
And if I make it rain, with two lines I have an umbrella
If a tiny drop of ink falls on a little blue piece of paper
In an instant, I imagine a beautiful seagull flying in the sky
It flies, circling the immense north-south curve
I travel with it to Hawaii, Beijing, or Istanbul
I paint a sailboat, white, sailing
There is so much sky and sea in a blue kiss
Between the clouds appears a beautiful pink and maroon airplane
Coloring everything around it with its flashing lights
Just imagine, and it’s taking off serene and beautiful
And, if we want it to it will land
On any leaf I draw a departing ship
With some good friends drinking, happy with life
From one America to another I can get there in a second
I turn a simple compass and, in a circle, I make the world

A boy walks and walking, he reaches the wall
And there, right in front waiting for us, the future is
And the future is a spaceship that we try to pilot
It has no time, no mercy, nor does it have a time to arrive
Without asking permission it changes our lives
And then invites us to laugh or cry
On this road, it is not up to us to know or see what will come
No one knows for sure where it will end
Let’s all go on a beautiful walkway
Of a watercolor that, one day, will finally fade away
On any sheet of paper I draw a yellow sun (that will fade away)
And, with five or six straight lines
It’s easy to make a castle (that will fade away)
I turn a simple compass
And, in a circle, I make the world (that will fade away)

Some say that fantasy and creativity will not change the world. My answer is that they always have. Although not at the pace we want.

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See Matthew Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet.

And Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation

And Fox, Prayer: A Radical Response to Life

And Fox, Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality

And Fox, Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

And Fox, One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Banner Image: “Amidst the ruins, a melody is born. Amidst the fear, hope blooms. 🎶❤️ Today, our students played Sheel Sheel Ya Jamali Sheel, escaping the weight of war through the freedom of music.” Photo captured from the Instagram reel of Ahmed Muin Abuamsha, founder and director of the Gaza Birds Singing.

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Queries for Contemplation

How do I integrate awareness of mortality, light-heartedness, and hope for transformation in my life?

Related Readings by Matthew Fox

Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet

Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow.  Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin

Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
How do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? Fox defines prayer as a radical response to life that includes our “Yes” to life (mysticism) and our “No” to forces that combat life (prophecy). How do we define adult prayer? And how—if at all—do prayer and mysticism relate to the struggle for social and ecological justice? One of Matthew Fox’s earliest books, originally published under the title On Becoming a Musical, Mystical Bear: Spirituality American Style, Prayer introduces a mystical/prophetic spirituality and a mature conception of how to pray. Called a “classic” when it first appeared, it lays out the difference between the creation spirituality tradition and the fall/redemption tradition that has so dominated Western theology since Augustine. A practical and theoretical book, it lays the groundwork for Fox’s later works.
“One of the finest books I have read on contemporary spirituality.” – Rabbi Sholom A. Singer

Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth

Fox’s spirituality weds the healing and liberation found in North American Creation Spirituality and in South American Liberation Theology. Creation Spirituality challenges readers of every religious and political persuasion to unite in a new vision through which we learn to honor the earth and the people who inhabit it as the gift of a good and just Creator.
“A watershed theological work that offers a common ground for religious seekers and activists of all stripes.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
“I am reading Liberating Gifts for the People of the Earth by Matt Fox.  He is one that fills my heart and mind for new life in spite of so much that is violent in our world.” ~ Sister Dorothy Stang.

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox calls on all the world traditions for their wisdom and their inspiration in a work that is far more than a list of theological position papers but a new way to pray—to meditate in a global spiritual context on the wisdom all our traditions share. Fox chooses 18 themes that are foundational to any spirituality and demonstrates how all the world spiritual traditions offer wisdom about each.“Reading One River, Many Wells is like entering the rich silence of a masterfully directed retreat. As you read this text, you reflect, you pray, you embrace Divinity. Truly no words can fully express my respect and awe for this magnificent contribution to contemporary spirituality.” –Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit

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