Balancing Kiwis

I thought I heard the music today.

I saw August Rush at the theater this week. This one is a movie that will probably polarize everyone who sees it. To many it will be a cheesy, feel-good schmaltz-fest with little or no bearing on real-world living. As a story, many will dismiss it (and as I look at critical feedback many have!!) as boring and pointless.

So why do I love it so much?

***SPOILER ALERT - No major plot points given away, but read on at your own risk***

It’s the story of a boy who hears music everywhere. In the fields, the wind, the traffic, the thud of a basketball, the rain, the sun. All of it . . . a massive orchestra playing in harmony with a universal music being played for those who can listen.

It begins with our child protagonist waxing lyrical about a music that he hears all around us, but that many become unable to hear. It is a music that wraps around and seeps into the cracks of everyday living, and he tells us that the music beckons us to a greater reality, a deeper living. Some of us (we are told) have instruments that can play this music, if we will only learn to hear it. When we do join the music, something extraordinary happens - people open up. Others hear us play, and want to begin to play along. Haunting melodies and harmonies intertwine as the orchestra that is real life plays. When asked where his music comes from he replies that it is “as if someone is shouting it to me. When I write it down it’s like I’m calling it back to them.”

As a story it doesn’t really impact me . . . It’s too far fetched . . . unless . . .

Unless it does indeed reflect (unintentionally) a greater truth. What if we imagine, or even dare accept, that there might be a greater reality around us - a mystical reality that inhabits our world but often remains hidden except to those with eyes to see? - Then the fable of August Rush could take on a different meaning entirely.

What if there truly is a music that is being played all the time from this greater reality? If so then could it be that in “real life” we could use our gifts and talents to play along and become a part of something bigger, deeper and more mysterious than any of us ever dreamed? What if our role was simply to learn to hear the music again, and then to learn to play in harmony with that? What if when we did, others would catch a glimpse of a Deeper Music and perhaps even align themselves with it and find that life seemed . . . more “right.”?

What if this music really was a call from a Mystic? And that we could call it back? Ridiculous I know . . . I could be wrong. But I’m trying to listen.

And crazy though it seems, I thought I heard the music today.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.