I wrote a story back in 1993 that begged to be told with music. It was called Distant Serenade and was beautifully illustrated by my friend Scott Snow and superbly orchestrated by my fishin’ buddy John Batdorf. I think it sold about twelve copies at full retail.
(Okay, so I’m exaggerating again, but the point is not a lot of people got it, and most of those who did only discovered it when someone gave it as a gift they picked up from the $1.99 discount rack.)
My story was inspired by a book I read about Australia and the Aborigines. I was fascinated by their belief that the earth was sung into existence. As I interpreted the Aboriginal legend, the melodies that were sung to create the earth actually became the tangible things that make up the world. And so the mountain-melody became a mountain, the tree-melody became a tree, and so forth.
The more I thought about this, the more intrigued I was by the possibilities. What if, (the first thought I ever have when creating anything) What if the earth really was sung into existence, but at the end of the day of creation one of the melodies remained un-embodied. What if it was just a melody? What then?
With this premise my imagination raced so fast I had a hard time keeping up. Stuff just started pouring out that made sense to me on a molecular level. Looking back now I’m somewhat embarrassed that I took such liberties with the Aborigines myths and legends without doing more extensive research. But the story inside was busting to get out and I just couldn’t wait to see what it had to tell me. I do hope that if Aborigines ever read my story or hear the songs that accompany it that they won’t put a curse on me for ignorantly misrepresenting something more sacred to them than I took time to understand.
The reason I’m telling you all of this is because I read my story and listened to the songs again after September 11th changed the world for all of us. It gave me chills because it was obviously written for people trying to make sense of the world after a tragedy, and trying to figure out just where they belong. It was like reading a story that was inspired by an event that hadn’t taken place yet.
The story is about a young girl from a place like New York whose parents have been tragically killed. (Or given the recent horror in Arizona it could just have well as been there.) The girl goes to live with her only living relative, an aunt who lives and works as an anthropologist in the outback of Australia. The aunt has studied the storytelling traditions of the Aborigines for years, and a few months before the tragedy she was in the bush with some aborigines when one of the older women of the tribe asked the scientist what stories she would be passing on to her family. The anthropologist started to cry because she felt like she had no stories to pass on. The Aboriginal woman said nothing, but a few days later she returned and said to the American, “I give you story. Then you have one for telling when daughter is ready.” When the anthropologist told the woman she didn’t have a daughter, the tribal storyteller smiled and said, “She coming…she coming” and then she gave the scientist a precious gift, a story to be shared with some future loved one, and then vanished into the bush.
The telling of that story from an aging aunt to her transplanted, misplaced adolescent, orphaned niece is the core story of a Distant Serenade.
Here’s the Reader’s Digest version: When the earth was sung into existence, one lone melody that became nothing tangible cries out to the heavens: “Tell me where I belong. Surely you understand. I cannot be myself until I find out who I am. Is there a place for me? Is there a master plan. I need to know where I belong. Please tell me who I am”
The Sky Dwellers tell the melody that it must find harmony to find its place in the world. “If you want to find yourself” they counsel, “you’ve got to harmonize with something else. The only way to reach the goal of finding your own soul is to harmonize with earth, sun and moon and stars and when you find sweet harmony you’re going to find out who you are.”
The melody takes the counsel and goes in search of harmony. In its search it listens closely to the melodies of the earth…all the melodies that have actually become something…birds, wild flowers, mountains and trees…And when it draws near to the song of the sea it hears something it hasn’t heard before…..a song of danger and fear.
It’s sung by a barramundi fish, hiding beneath a seaweed that isn’t quite big enough to disguise it’s quivering fins. The barramundi is starving itself to death, frightened at the prospect of searching for food in the open waters because it had recently watched a brother fish disappear into the massive jaws of a saltwater crocodile
IT’S A DANGEROUS AND FRIGHTENING WORLD OUT THERE.
I HAVE SEEN WHAT IT CAN DO TO ONE WHO ENTERS UNPREPARED.
IT CAN TAKE YOUR HOPES AND DREAMS,
BLOW THEM ALL TO SMITHEREENS.
IT’S A DANGEROUS AND FRIGHTENING WORLD OUT THERE.
THERE ARE MONSTERS THAT ARE HUNGRY FOR THE KILL.
AND THE INNOCENT ARE RETICENT TO THINK THE MONSTERS WILL BUT THEY’RE EVERYWHERE YOU TURN,
AND THEY’RE SCARY AND I’VE LEARNED
IT’S A DANGEROUS AND FRIGHTENING WORLD OUT THERE.
AND SO I’LL BE REMAINING SAFELY CONFINED TO THIS SPACE.
MY FRIENDS SAY THAT I’LL STARVE TO DEATH IN A WHILE IF I DON’T VENTURE OUT OF THIS PLACE.
BUT IT’S A DANGEROUS AND FRIGHTENING WORLD OUT THERE. AND TO LIVE A LIFE THERE IN IS SUCH A PERILOUS AFFAIR.
I’LL BE SAFE AND I’LL BE SOUND BURIED UNDERNEATH THE GROUND. CAUSE IT’S A DANGEROUS AND FRIGHTENING WORLD OUT THERE.
Listen to the song here.
As I read the words to this song, written eight years before 9/11 I was overwhelmed by the things it said and how it said them. But as I read further on in the story of a Distant Serenade, I felt like there was something about trying to reach out and touch me.
The melody felt uncontrollably drawn to the frightened fish and listened to the anguish of its song. And then, without even thinking about it, the melody wrapped itself around the strains of fear and created…harmony! The barramundi song began to transform, as if being led from the prison of its own fear by the presence of the new melody. Stanzas of courage began to silence the whimpering of despair, and a new song, a new creature was born.
BECAUSE IT’S CLEAR, BECAUSE YOU’RE HERE,
BECAUSE YOUR LOVE IS DROWNING THE FEAR.
BECAUSE I THIRST TO QUENCH THE HURT.
BECAUSE NOT TRYING IS ALWAYS WORSE,
I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. I WILL NOT RUN AWAY.
I’LL FACE THE MUSIC GLADLY THAT I HAVE MADE.
I WILL NOT BE AFRAID I WILL NOT BE AFRAID.
FOR SO LONG I CHOSE TO BE A PRISONER OF FEAR.
I PROLONGED THE SLAVERY FOR TOO MANY YEARS, FOR TOO MANY YEARS.
I WILL NOT BE AFRAID…I WILL NOT RUN AWAY.
I’LL GROW A LITTLE STRONGER EVERYDAY.
I’LL LET THE MEMORIES OF FAILURE FADE
AND THE THINGS I’VE LEARNED I WILL NOT TRADE
I WILL NOT BE AFRAID
I WILL NOT RUN AWAY
I’M GOING TO TRY A LITTLE HARDER COME WHAT MAY
I’LL FACE THE MUSIC PROUDLY THAT I HAVE MADE
AND IF YOU KNEW ME THEN YOU’LL KNOW I’VE CHANGED TODAY
I WILL NOT BE AFRAID
I WILL NOT RUN AWAY
I WILL NOT BE AFRAID…I WILL NOT BE AFRAID…
I WILL NOT BE AFRAID.
Listen to the song here:
As I listened to this song, and read these words in the context of a post 9/11 world I wondered out loud WHY had this been written the way it had so many years ago, and WHAT was I supposed to do with it.
The answer came quickly, and precisely, and I think it has application far beyond the life of one songwriter who lives a long way from NYC and Washington D.C. I think gifts are sometimes given as answers to prayers long before they are ever prayed. I think there’s somebody in heaven, a Heavenly Father, who hears and answers many of our prayers long before we pray them. And that everything we’ve been given is meant to help us, or be a means of helping someone else. Hard as it is to imagine, I believe, like that melody we can be the tools in God’s hands to answer someone else’s prayers.
When I yearned to reach out to those who suffered so terribly from the attacks in New York and Washington, I found I did have something to give: My self. My love. My understanding as well as my lack of understanding. My willingness to share in the vulnerability as well as whatever faith I can muster to say, “I will not be afraid.”
I wonder how many gifts each of us have been given on one seemingly insignificant day are really meant to be opened and used by someone else at some distant giftless tomorrow. Perhaps the songs I write are deposits into some melodic bank account, all waiting for some future withdrawal.
WHEN THERE IS NO ONE NEAR
WHEN YOU FEEL LOST AND AFRAID
LISTEN AND YOU WILL HEAR
A DISTANT SERENADE
VOICES FROM LONG AGO
AREN’T REALLY SO FAR AWAY
THEY’LL HEAL AN ACHING SOUL
WITH THEIR DISTANT SERENADE.
IT’S A MELODY THAT KEEPS ON BECKONING:”COMFORT ONE ANOTHER
BE WHAT ONLY YOU CAN BE AND STRENGTHEN EACH OTHER”
MAYBE THE TIME WILL COME WHEN YOU’LL JOIN AN ETERNAL PARADE
OF ALL THE LIVES WHO’VE LOVED AND SUNG
A DISTANT SERENADE
Listen to the song here:
