CowPi Journal

You will walk toward the mirror,
closer and closer, then flow
into the glass. You will disappear
some day like that, being
more real, more true, at the last.

You learn what you are, but slowly,
a baby, a boy, a man,
a self often shattered, and pieces
put together again till the end:
you halt, the glass opens.

A surface, an image, a past.

— William Stafford

The song “Down to Earth” by Peter Gabriel is a catchy little song played over the closing credits at the end of the movie, WALL•E. The song fits perfectly with the ending of the movie and with its hopeful allusion to the future.

After further listening, I noticed that the song is dripping with great spirituality. Every line points nearly perfectly toward the virtue of humility, except for parts of the third stanza (after the second refrain), and even here, there are still subtle pointers. Remember the old saying about pride running away before the fall? Well, humility is the only thing that remains. The choice is to accept or reject it, be transformed by it and live fruitfully, or become angry, bitter and resentful. This song celebrates the choice to live humbly.

Did you think that your feet had been bound
By what gravity brings to the ground?
Did you feel you were tricked
By the future you picked?
Well, come on down

All those rules don’t apply
When you’re high in the sky
So, come on down
Come on down

[refrain]
We’re coming down to the ground
There’s no better place to go
We’ve got snow up on the mountains
We’ve got rivers down below
We’re coming down to the ground
We hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze

Did you think you’d escaped from routine
By changing the script and the scene?
Despite all you made of it
You’re always afraid
Of the change

You’ve got a lot on your chest
Well, you can come as my guest
So come on down
Come on down

[refrain]

Like the fish in the ocean
We felt at home in the sea
We learned to live off the good land
Learned to climb up a tree
Then we got up on two legs
But we wanted to fly
When we messed up our homeland
We set sail for the sky

[refrain]

We’re coming down (down)
Coming down to earth (down)
Like babies at birth (down)
Coming down to earth (down to earth)
Redefine your priorities (down)
These are extraordinary qualities (down)
(Down, down to earth)

[refrain x2]

Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities
To find on earth

(coming down, coming down, coming down, to find on earth)

I return to my favorite place along the river
Sitting on the grass in the cool shade of a tree
Watching, listening, being…

An old philosopher said
“You can never go to the same river twice.”
I wonder—
What changes
What stays the same
And what exactly is a river?
The water, the banks, the flow…

This river has a modest beginning
A source far away in the high places
Creeks and streams and other rivers join this river
Along its journey across the needy land
As it learns to sing its song
While giving itself away
To every thing that thirsts

Eventually this river will end
When its mouth kisses the ocean
And sings its song forever
Amongst all the rivers of the world
In the symphony of life

Today is yesterday’s future
Today is tomorrow’s past
This present moment is a river
Presence flowing yet ever still
There is only one present moment
You can never be in the same now twice

I haven’t changed
But I know I’m not the same
I wonder what changes
What stays the same
And what exactly is being?

I am a river
My being flows
You can never meet the same me twice
And yet…it’s still me

There is a line from a William Stafford poem:

“It’s for the best,” my mother said, “Nothing can
ever be wrong for anyone truly good.”

And then I look at the suffering Jesus endured,
and the suffering of all people.
If any one was definitely good, it would be Jesus.
As for me, the only good in me is Jesus.

And yet he suffered.
I have suffered, and will again.
The people I love have suffered.
The stranger in the store has suffered,
and perhaps even now is trying to live with tragedy.

Why? I don’t know.
I do know that Jesus came and he suffered.
He was human. He suffered
with us, for us.

God never answered Job’s questions.
He is not going to answer mine.
God is the one who asks the questions:
How are you going to respond?
Are you going to receive or reject, keep or give?

The answer to the question is not a what, but a who,
not words, but the Word.
God is the answer to all questions.
And Jesus came
to show and to live and to be the answer.

I claim no deep understanding,
but I know—I know—with Jesus,
nothing can ever be wrong.

Near the end of the same poem,

“You don’t have to prove anything,” my mother said.
“Just be ready for what God sends.”