The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse was a book I read when I was far too young to understand its contents. Currently an old paperback copy sits on my bookshelf here. Pulled out from musty boxes filled with paperbacks with signets from the 60 and 70s, Grove, Dell, Avon, it has remained unopened since 1974 when at 18 years old I devoured it. I have had it out for about a year now with the intent that I should go back and reread this Hesse’s magnum opus when I have a few spare moments. Spare moments, ha.
The one thing I remember and my perception of this may be warped, is that the game was very convoluted and involved finding of connections between music, literature, mathematics and other disciplines. Synchronicity obviously had a role in the playing of the game. This would figure given that one of the characters in the book was a thinly disguised rendering of Frederick Nietzsche. Today as the morning progressed I felt I was playing my own Glass Bead Game as I was listening to Liane Hansen on Weekend Edition Sunday.
In commemoration of the King Holiday Weekend Edition Sunday played a piece where one of the men on the balcony with Dr. King at the moment of his assassination was telling his story, his oral history of that horrible moment. The clip was from Reverend Kyles and it was recorded more than a decade ago. The next thing that happened was they interviewed an obviously older version of the Reverend Kyles about what it felt like today looking back on all of what has occurred. Here is the piece.
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=122670935&m=122670920
Reverend Kyles talked about what he would be preaching in his homily on this day the Sunday before the holiday. His message was going to focus on punching holes in the darkness. The Reverend stated that Robert Louis Stevenson was the source of his theme. Per Reverend Kyles the original versions of this idea were comments made when Stevenson was sickly child and the adults overseeing his care were concerned about his staring out the window. They asked Stevenson about what he could see looking out of his sickroom’s window into the dark night. Stevenson responded by saying that he was watching the old man punching holes in the night. When quizzed about he said the old man would climb up the ladder and light a light. Stevenson noted that he watched this old man repeat the process again and again as he was knocking holes in the dark.
I really liked that thought, knocking holes in the darkness. It was a metaphor for so much of what each of does in the course of day. We try to provide knowledge and reduce ignorance. We try to reduce uncertainty and bring knowledge based peace. We act to make life easier through disclosure punching holes in the empty ache of frightened unawareness. It was a very humanist theme. Before I was going to start riffing on it I decided I had better check out the original genesis of the quote by a quick Google search. It sounded too familiar.
What I found was that the quote is attributed to Stevenson. What I also found was that about every church and every pastor in America has had a sermon wherein Jesus was the awl punching the holes in the darkness. Here is the link if you want to check some of them out.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=punching+holes+in+the+darkness&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3DVFA_enUS313US315&ie=UTF-8&aq=0&oq=punching+hole
Jesus was not the theme I was heading for. I liked the act as a human endeavor, one of kindness and compassion. But something kept nagging at me where had I heard this phrase before? Another Google search changing the terms a couple of times followed. Finally I got it, “punching a hole in the night” It was Tom Waits of course. It is one of the most popular of Tom Wait’s songs because it has been covered by everybody.
Okay so the mental slipstream today goes like this…
The Martin Luther King Holiday -- Robert Louis Stevenson -- Tom Waits -- Glass Bead Game -- Herman Hesse -- Synchronicity -- Nietzsche
Not much point to all of this except to detail how my though process sometimes works.
8 comments:
I loved finding your blog post. I heard the same story and went googling for the reference. I was bogged down by the religious references given that I took the story to be about a change in perception-to see something a different way, not a story of being rescued by Jesus. Tom Waits was a nice place to land.
Hello Working Brain,
So very pleased to have found your post. I, too, had heard the piece on NPR this morning. It certainly was one of the best pre-MLKDay meditations I've ever heard. I LOVE the line: "punching holes in the darkness," and was also going to look it up, as I was driving at the time. Thank you for saving me the trouble! For several years I taught students who have severe emotional impairments in a secure, residential high school, and, as you put it, "we try to reduce uncertainty and bring knowledge-based peace." I believe, at their core, that the anxiety from unexpected, undeserved traumas they've suffered coupled with their seemingly unknown future propels much of my students' behavior disorders. In fact, I'm writing a paper called Building Confidence for Students with Emotional Impairments. Anyways, the line does a lot more than that for me, too. So profound. Thanks again.
Mary,
I appreciate your comments. I was baking biscuits for my Primus and Secundus and only heard part of it. I had to come to the computer to hear the whole thing and I was really impressed by the piece in toto.
Wilde,
You have a tough job. I am glad I could offer something that saved you a little time. I and several of the people who regularly read and post to my blog work with people who are facing challenges or who are in need. I think when you work with people who are hurting the hope is always to punch a hole in the darkness. It is why we do what we do.
Hmmm, Jesus punching holes in the darkness is not a human endeavor?
I don’t think I have ever made it a secret in this blog that I am a Christian. However with that as my starting point I kind of go with the illustrative story of the being who sat on a roof top in the flood shouting loudly God will take care of me. First this person waives off the boat that offers rescue to a safe dry place saying God will take care of me. Next comes the wave off of a helicopter offering similar safe passage, the stranded person saying God will take care of me. Ultimately as the waters rise, drowning follows. We the deceased is subsequently facing God one on one, this being asks why didn’t you take care of me God? God replies didn’t you see the boat or helicopter I sent?
I think we as human beings have a great of deal of autonomy in how we act. It can be a dark time as we struggle to find the light. Whether we follow traditional ethics, the golden mean, or the commandments of Christ, it is on us to punch the hole in the darkness. If the light that is revealed is divine then so be it. If it is simply enlightenment of one form or another that is good too. However I think people of faith are often too willing to leave hard questions unanswered or hard problems untended by simply placing the issues in a box and saying it is in God’s hands when hard work and intellectual endeavor could have made things better.
Thanks so much for posting this link and for your meditations. I was looking for it everywhere!
Lee I was glad I could help.
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