Thursday, June 17, 2004
The Girl Who Sang Dream-Hallowed Reason
Yes, there is this Terrible Angel. This is the Terrible Angel whose sparsely feathered wings cover up the sun in the season of lost things. This is the Terrible Angel whose seven mouths sing seventy times seven smiling lies to those who desire light and warmth in a dark month. There are many stories about this angel in which the angel is never mentioned, because this is an angel of many disguises who masterfully slides into shadow. But in this story, we will know the Terrible Angel for who and what he is.
Somewhere, sometime ago in one of those places that is and isn't, in that time that almost was and goes on still, a little girl lived in a village of darkness, a village of whispers, a village of stillness. The people of the village went about slow and sluggish in their sunless village when they went about at all and no one ever spoke a healthy, full-throated word. But the little girl was different. She sped along gleefully wherever she went and she spoke in a bright and healthful tone so that it seemed to the whispering villagers that she shouted whenever she spoke. To the surprise of all the villagers, the little girl seemed to have been born knowing songs that no one else in the village had ever heard before and she often ran about singing them in a voice so lovely that flowers sprouted and bloomed just to hear it, though there was no sunlight to help them grow and because there was no sunlight, the flowers went unnoticed.
The little girl was the first to wonder why the village was dark and still and why everyone spoke only in whispers. She was also the first to notice the flowers, which had never been seen in the village until she came along to sing them up from the earth. The little girl had the gift of Dream-Hallowed Reason, another thing never known to the village before.This was the gift that gave her the songs she sang. This was the gift that gave her the sense to do something others might think senseless, which was to ask the flowers what was wrong.
Flowers are older than people are. Their roots reach deep into hidden things and their faces have an understanding of the sky. Flowers know many things that people do not know. The flowers told the little girl all about the Terrible Angel. They told her it was he who blocked out the sun.They explained that the lies of his seven mouths drowned out and forced down the voices of the villagers because the lies were constant and loud and sung at a celestial pitch. The darkness and the lies together made the people of the village slow and sluggish and sometimes too frightened to move. The flowers told the little girl that if she slept among them each night, they would try to teach her a song by way of her Dream-Hallowed Reason, a song so lovely that it might banish this Terrible Angel.
The little girl did as the flowers asked. Each night she slept among them and each morning she did her best to sing the song the flowers sent her as she slept. It was not an easy song to learn, not even for such a gifted child. At first, she could see no change in the village. As the days and months and years wore on, they wore her down and often she despaired. But she continued to sleep and sing and run about and even dance among those most beautiful, largely unnoticed flowers and as she grew, so did her singing grow into a perfect song and bit by bit, so slowly and so gradually that the villagers and even the little girl barely noticed the changes as the changes happened, the sun began to seep through the sparsely feathered wings of the Terrible Angel and his lies began to quiet down and one day, long after the little girl had quite grown up, though she remained a little girl in her heart just as she should have remained, there was sunlight enough for everyone to take notice of her beautiful flowers and the villagers seemed full of life, going from place to place with glee and speaking and singing in healthy, full-throated tones. Everyone in the village came to love the singing girl and her lovely song, though they could never understand just how much the girl and her singing and her song had done for them.
Somewhere, sometime ago in one of those places that is and isn't, in that time that almost was and goes on still, a little girl lived in a village of darkness, a village of whispers, a village of stillness. The people of the village went about slow and sluggish in their sunless village when they went about at all and no one ever spoke a healthy, full-throated word. But the little girl was different. She sped along gleefully wherever she went and she spoke in a bright and healthful tone so that it seemed to the whispering villagers that she shouted whenever she spoke. To the surprise of all the villagers, the little girl seemed to have been born knowing songs that no one else in the village had ever heard before and she often ran about singing them in a voice so lovely that flowers sprouted and bloomed just to hear it, though there was no sunlight to help them grow and because there was no sunlight, the flowers went unnoticed.
The little girl was the first to wonder why the village was dark and still and why everyone spoke only in whispers. She was also the first to notice the flowers, which had never been seen in the village until she came along to sing them up from the earth. The little girl had the gift of Dream-Hallowed Reason, another thing never known to the village before.This was the gift that gave her the songs she sang. This was the gift that gave her the sense to do something others might think senseless, which was to ask the flowers what was wrong.
Flowers are older than people are. Their roots reach deep into hidden things and their faces have an understanding of the sky. Flowers know many things that people do not know. The flowers told the little girl all about the Terrible Angel. They told her it was he who blocked out the sun.They explained that the lies of his seven mouths drowned out and forced down the voices of the villagers because the lies were constant and loud and sung at a celestial pitch. The darkness and the lies together made the people of the village slow and sluggish and sometimes too frightened to move. The flowers told the little girl that if she slept among them each night, they would try to teach her a song by way of her Dream-Hallowed Reason, a song so lovely that it might banish this Terrible Angel.
The little girl did as the flowers asked. Each night she slept among them and each morning she did her best to sing the song the flowers sent her as she slept. It was not an easy song to learn, not even for such a gifted child. At first, she could see no change in the village. As the days and months and years wore on, they wore her down and often she despaired. But she continued to sleep and sing and run about and even dance among those most beautiful, largely unnoticed flowers and as she grew, so did her singing grow into a perfect song and bit by bit, so slowly and so gradually that the villagers and even the little girl barely noticed the changes as the changes happened, the sun began to seep through the sparsely feathered wings of the Terrible Angel and his lies began to quiet down and one day, long after the little girl had quite grown up, though she remained a little girl in her heart just as she should have remained, there was sunlight enough for everyone to take notice of her beautiful flowers and the villagers seemed full of life, going from place to place with glee and speaking and singing in healthy, full-throated tones. Everyone in the village came to love the singing girl and her lovely song, though they could never understand just how much the girl and her singing and her song had done for them.
