“I am I said, to no one there…”
The words of this classic Neil Diamond song belted into the air at the last job I was doing. Marcus loves this oldies stuff and loads it into his MP3 player, along with a lot of other eclectic music. But I particularly picked up on this. I’ve always loved this song, too, and now wondered where its power came from. It was so obvious, it was staring me in the face.
Mr. Diamond might just be a closet ACIM student, and a good one at that. The ego’s declaration to the world: “I am, I said”; and later, “I am, I cried.” Now that pretty much sums up the ego’s separation-based thinking for me. And then the Holy Spirit’s response of a question mark, asking, “To whom do you cry?” Mr. Diamond: “To no one there… No one heard at all, not even the chair.” The ego may cry and scream all it likes, but there is nothing and no one to hear its plaintive appeals for importance, for reality.
Now, Neil could have looked next to him at the wise Companion whispering in his ear, but it seems he forgot and instead found himself abandoned in his search for self-recognition. In his words, “Leaving me lonely still…” He goes on to say a number of other things about his desperate situation, the most poignant perhaps being, “And I am lost, and I can’t even say why…” Which is perhaps why a number of us seem so glad to have found A Course In Miracles! We now know why we feel lost! That’s really useful information. We can do something if we know what the problem is: we’re still turning away from the only Voice that will help us turn back toward Reality and away from the search for some illusory recognition of the individual self.
We could make a truly daring attempt to give Mr. Diamond’s song a right-minded spin…
“We are, we said, as One in Heaven,
And no one need hear our words,
For only Love is real.”
But that would really be pushing things too far…
We do not need the chair or the furniture (or the toaster or the traffic) to hear our cries; we do not need the world to hear our voice. Nothing about us can be lost. All is perfectly intact. The Voice of our right-mind is always heard. Even if we don’t understand all that this means, it’s nice to know…
Very good post Bernard, thanks. It shows us that when we are ready for “something” in that moment “appears” “something” that gives us some sort of message or answer. Or we can go deeper: When our D.M. turns to Jesus or HS and ask for help They answer with Love in the mind but we are so terrified that immediately look for a symbol that we can accept without such a fear. And there we are, listening to a song, watching a movie or simply cleaning the house. Everything helps when we are “ready”.
I liked this a lot “The ego may cry and scream all it likes, but there is nothing and anyone to hear its plaintive appeals for importance, for reality”.
Thanks so much for everything Bernard.
Hugs and love, Lisi
:::SMILE:::
Bernard, great post my friend. You got me thinking abot his early music. Our oldest daughter ws born in 1979 and her and he siblings used to jag us about playing Neil, years later when they got older. So, I felt sure some of the early albums we listened to would fit what you were talking about. On The Way to The Sky was the album and also the name of the following song.
Written by: neil diamond
We are two and two of us are one
I’m back on my feet again
Out on the street again
Looking for love
On the way to the sky
Some people moving up
Some people standing still
Some hold their hand out
And some people never will
Lover and liers
Consumed by the fires
Of too many dances
But not enough songs
Hear my song
We pity the poor one
The shy and unsure one
Who wanted it perfect
But waited too long
There’s no way to count
Or to measure the cost
Of the innocence lost
On the way to the sky
You and i
And we are two and two of us are one
But maybe two of us can be enough
To get it done
Lover and liers
Consumed by the fires
Of too many dances
But not enough songs
We pity the poor one
The shy, the unsure one
Who wanted it perfect
But waited too long
Much too long
I’m back on my feet again
I’m out on the street again
Looking for love
On the way to the sky
You and i
God bless us every one (Neil didn’t write those words Dickens did, and Tiny Tim can still be heard uttering those very words)
Lawrence, Dickens not only wrote those words, but he wrote Scrooge into me, he did, so I have to listen to his bitchin* ..earlier, I really really judged that voice inside, until I noticed that was probably his voice too :::giggles::: and then I found this way of extending love to him instead – and you wouldn’t believe how much judgments he has lost now –
and I still love Dickens more than almost any other author. Love the movies and TV-series from his book – BLEAK HOUSE must be my favorite: there are truly GOOD people in Dickens stories – people who always manage to look at everything with kindness. There are quite some of those in Bleak House – and the mean ones are so mean that they are the greatest exercises in forgiveness for me: oh boy did i dream THAt ONE TOO??
I love it when suddenly a big tenderness comes up in me while watching the baddies: we all want peace, underneath all of that larm and wrath.